Mandelson's WhatsApp messages could be RELEASED through court case

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:05][music] >> Yes, yes to the written tests.

[00:00:08]Washington would be very content.

[00:00:20]>> Do you expect to be arrested, Mr. Mandelson?

[00:00:23]Did you deceive the Prime Minister, Mr. Mandelson?

[00:00:45]>> Mr. Speaker, as the House is aware, the Metropolitan Police has also asked the government to withhold some material in scope of the motion, which they considered could be prejudicial to their ongoing criminal investigation or any subsequent prosecution.

[00:00:58]This request remains in place, and I'm very grateful again to the chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, with whom we have also shared this information, in order to provide additional accountability of the government's actions.

[00:01:12]I hope that members appreciate the need not to prejudice the investigation, and understand that I will not be able to answer questions about certain documents which have been withheld.

[00:01:21]No responsible government would wish to undermine a criminal investigation and put at risk the justice that it seeks, and I'm sure the House will share this position.

[00:01:30]I can, however, Mr. Speaker, confirm that this material does include questions put to Peter Mandelson by the Prime Minister's then Chief of Staff, and Peter Mandelson's responses.

[00:01:42]In addition, a small number of documents have been withheld at the request of the police, which fall broadly into the following categories.

[00:01:51]Firstly, national security vetting information.

[00:01:55]Secondly, conflict of interest process material.

[00:01:59]And thirdly, relevant internal correspondence with Peter Mandelson.

[00:02:03]Such information will of course be published at the conclusion of the investigation or at the point at which it would no longer be prejudicial to the police investigation to do so.

[00:02:13]Mr. Speaker, the documents published in the first and second tranches contain the entirety of the documents the government has available for disclosure except those few documents I have just referred to in relation to the Metropolitan Police.

[00:02:25]Members will no doubt have questions about what might be perceived to be missing messages and meeting notes, which I would like to address in turn.

[00:02:35]On messages that some might expect to be included, I can confirm that we have conducted multiple rounds of discovery from relevant ministers, special advisers, and officials in line with the motion passed by the house.

[00:02:49]This has involved requesting searches of email, messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, and other related communication services on both work and personal devices.

[00:03:01]However, the house should note that some messages may not have been backed up where devices may have been changed or disappearing messages were turned on for reasonable and permitted reasons, including before the dismissal of Peter Mandelson or the passing of the humble address, myself included.

[00:03:18]I do recall, Mr. Speaker, having some limited exchanges with Peter Mandelson over WhatsApp, including those I have already discussed in the media.

[00:03:26]But these conversations did not involve transacting government government business and were in line with official guidance on the use of non-corporate communication channels at the time.

[00:03:35]Mr. Speaker, I also share the view put by the Intelligence and Security Committee to the house that there are lessons for the Civil Service to learn in respect of better note-keeping, archiving, and the use of appropriate levels of secure IT systems in the future.

[00:03:49]The government has already committed to a review of the use of non-corporate communications channels, the terms of reference for which we will shortly publish.

[00:03:57]Taking into account the concerns that have been raised in this house and the two tranches of documents we have published in response to the humble address.

[00:04:04]I will of course keep the house updated as we progress that work.

[00:04:08]Mr. Speaker, I will now turn to the material relating to Peter Mandelson's national security vetting process.

[00:04:14]I can confirm that the vetting process summary and recommendation that was put by UK security officials to the Foreign Office has been shared with the Intelligence and Security Committee.

[00:04:27]This [clears throat] was shared for the purpose of agreeing redactions as part of the agreed process so that it can be published when we are in a position to do so.

[00:04:36]What hasn't been shared is the highly sensitive personal data inputs collected during the interview process.

[00:04:43]These could, for example, relate to how much money an individual might have in a particular account or who a person may have had a personal relationship with in the past.

[00:04:52]Mr. Speaker, if those participating in the vetting process cannot trust that the information they feed into that process is confidential, it will harm the integrity of the whole system.

[00:05:03]Anything less than full candor candor would be hugely damaging and be profoundly negative for our national security. This will be felt by this and future governments and ultimately by the British people.

[00:05:16]As such, sharing this data for any person undergoing development vetting would undermine the very basis of our national security vetting system.

[00:05:25]Mr. Speaker, this is the 10th update to the house on this matter that I have provided.

[00:05:30]And with the exception of the small number of documents that are withheld at the request of the police, which we intend to publish when the police are content for us to do so, the government now considers that it has duly discharged the duties set out in the humble address.