The foreign secretary has said Peter Mandelson should “never have been appointed” as Britain’s ambassador to the US, after damning messages between ministers and the disgraced peer were published.Yvette Cooper said as she described the messages disclosed in the latest tranche of the Mandelson files as an “unedifying process”.The minister, who made the comments during her visit to China, also decline to say whether she recognised Mandelson’s criticism of Sir Keir Starmer, after messages revealed he said the prime minister “lacks verve”.Asked whether she recognised the disgraced peer’s description of Sir Keir’s approach as “advance, buckle, advance, buckle”, the foreign secretary told reporters in Beijing: “What I would say is that Peter Mandelson should never have been appointed as ambassador to the United States and, look, of course there’s been a lot of transparency now about messages being released.“That’s always an unedifying process but right to be transparent.”She added: “We mustn’t forget two things: first is that in the end this whole thing started about Epstein’s abuse of young women and girls, and sometimes the conversation gets pulled away from that, and, secondly, I think the whole Government is getting on with the most important issues that affect our country and that’s exactly why I’m here in China having these important discussions about international security.”This is a breaking story – more follows...