Starmer agrees to release some files on Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador in wake of Epstein scandal – UK politics live | Politics

Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has been giving interviews this morning on behalf of the government. He was supposed to be talking about the national cancer plan (see 9.32am), but he ended up taking a lot of questions about Peter Mandelson. He told Times Radio that people in the Labour party felt “bitterly” betrayed by Mandelson.

You can see the outrage across the political spectrum and from people up and down our country.

I cannot state strongly enough how bitterly that betrayal feels for those of us in the Labour party who feel very personally let down and also feel that he, as well as betraying two prime ministers, betraying our country and betraying Epstein’s victims, has fundamentally betrayed our values and the things that motivate us and the things that brought us into politics, which is public service and national interest, not self-service and self-interest.

Three in four cancer patients in England will beat cancer under government plans to raise survival rates, as figures reveal someone is now diagnosed every 75 seconds in the UK. As Andrew Gregory reports, today the government is publishing its national cancer plan and in it ministers will pledge £2bn to resolve the crisis by transforming cancer services, with millions of patients promised faster diagnoses, quicker treatment and more support to live well.

Good morning. The government has agreed to release potentially a large amount of information relating to how Peter Mandelson came to be appointed ambassador to Washington. The decision marks a win for Kemi Badenoch, who forced this decision by tabling a humble address motion in the Commons which the government does not have the confidence to fully oppose.

Ironically, it was Keir Starmer himself who encouraged the use of the parliamentary weapon that Badenoch is using. Opposition parties can table motions for debate, but most of them are not binding. However, if they table a humble address (“That an humble address be presented to His Majesty, that he will be graciously pleased to give directions to require the government to lay before this house all papers relating to” etc), and it passes, the government has to compy.

In 2017 Starmer, the then shadow Brexit secretary, won a humble address vote that forced the release of documents relating to the economic impact of Brexit. It was the first time for years the device had been used successfully. Since then humble addresses have become almost commonplace.

Here is the motion tabled by the Conservatives for debate today.

That an humble address be presented to His Majesty, that he will be graciously pleased to give directions to require the government to lay before this house all papers relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment as His Majesty’s ambassador to the United States of America, including but not confined to the Cabinet Office due diligence which was passed to Number 10, the conflict of interest form Lord Mandelson provided to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), material the FCDO and the Cabinet Office provided to UK security vetting about Lord Mandelson’s interests in relation to Global Counsel, including his work in relation to Russia and China, and his links to Jeffrey Epstein, papers for, and minutes of, meetings relating to the decision to appoint Lord Mandelson, electronic communications between the prime minister’s chief of staff and Lord Mandelson, and between ministers and Lord Mandelson, in the six months prior to his appointment, minutes of meetings between Lord Mandelson and ministers in the six months prior to his appointment, all information on Lord Mandelson provided to the prime minister prior to his assurance to this house on 10 September 2025 that ‘full due process was followed during this appointment’, electronic communications and minutes of all meetings between Lord Mandelson and ministers, government officials and special advisers during his time as ambassador, and the details of any payments made to Lord Mandelson on his departure as ambassador and from the civil service.

The government has a working majority of 168 and, in theory, the PM could have just ordered his MPs to vote this down. For obvious reasons, he has concluded that would not be acceptable to Labour MPs. So the government has decided it will accept most of this; it has tabled its own amendment, saying it agrees to publish all of this “except papers prejudicial to UK national security or international relations”.

Potentially, that could be a very large exemption. And ultimately it will be the cabinet secretary who will decide what gets released if the motion, as amended, is passed (which seems inevitable). Some humble addresses have resulted in significant information being released, but in 2022, after MPs voted for a humble address asking for the release of information relating to Boris Johnson’s decision to give a peerage to his friend Evgeny Lebedev, despite the security services having some misgivings about this, the government mostly ignored the vote, and only released a few pages of largely irrelevant information.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.45am: Wes Streeting, the health secretary, launches the national cancer plan at the Royal Free hospital.

10am: Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee.

Noon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.

After 12.30pm: MPs debate the Tory humble address motion that would force the release of government information relating to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US. The votes on the motion, and the government amendmernt, will come at about 4pm.

2pm: Streeting takes part in an LBC phone-in.

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