Alex Burghart: The Mandelson-Epstein scandal is far from over

Alex Burghart MP is Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, and Conservative MP for Brentwood and Ongar.

The Mandelson-Epstein scandal continues to spread. Last night I had a drink with a long-experienced political hand who told me it bore all the hallmarks of Watergate.

Watergate brought down the White House Chief of Staff, its Chief Domestic Adviser, its Counsel, two Attorneys General, a Deputy Attorney General, and a President. So far Mandelson-Epstein has taken the jobs of the UK’s Ambassador to Washington, Downing Street’s Chief of Staff, and it’s Communications Director. It is unlikely to stop there.

The Conservatives have forced the issue from the start, pushing the Prime Minister repeatedly on what he knew and when and forcing the first major defeat of the Labour government last month with our Humble Address. This requires the Government to hand over all of its documentation about Mandelson’s appointment.

Since Kemi Badenoch forced it out of him last month at Prime Minister’s Questions, we have known that the Prime Minister was well aware that Mandelson had maintained his friendship with Epstein even after the latter’s conviction for child sex offences. Following the first Humble Address return we have it in black and white along with, in bold, a warning that there was “general reputational risk”. Who’d have thought it about a man already twice fired?

But the documents have huge lacunae. Either the government was not maintaining a record of what it was doing, or it has not handed over the documents. Last week I wrote to Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, pointing out 56 instances where there should have been a record to publish. The absurdity of it all is highlighted by the fact that there is not one read out, response or reply from the Prime Minister, from his Chief of Staff or Peter Mandelson in the whole release. No notes, no emails, no forms. Nothing. It is as though their fingerprints have been forensically removed from the process.

The seriousness of this is simple. If the Government did not follow due process, the Prime Minister has lied to the House. If the Government has not handed over the documents, it has not complied with the Humble Address and is in contempt of Parliament.

On 11 November 2024, the Cabinet Secretary said that if the Prime Minister wanted to make a political appointment to Washington, the civil service would “develop a plan for … the necessary security clearances and do due diligence on any potential Conflicts of Interest”. Where, then, are the documents that show these security clearances and declarations were down? They are not in the papers the government has released.

I dragged the Government to the House with an Urgent Question to put this to them. There were no satisfactory answers. The Minister refused to confirm either that the security clearance had been done or that Mandelson had submitted a declaration of interests.

We know that at least one document has not been published at the request of the Metropolitan Police. This contains the questions that Morgan McSweeney asked Peter Mandelson. (The absurdity here is, of course, that Mandelson’s vetting was being done by a close friend who wanted him to have the job.) But what is key is that the Government has admitted the existence of the document. If there are other key documents being held back by the police, there is nothing to stop the Government telling us what they are.

So there is no reason for the Government to hide the fact that a security vetting form exists. There is no reason for the Government to hide the fact that Mandelson submitted a declaration of interests. And that means that it is likely those documents do not exist. And if they do not, due process was not followed. And if due process was not followed, then when the Prime Minister assured the House in September that “full due process was followed”, he lied.

There comes a point in any scandal where the cover up becomes the crime. The Government is not being honest. The Prime Minister is not being honest. And that means that the Mandelson-Epstein scandal, will continue to spread.