Mandelson called opposition to genocide 'hysterical'

The latest release of emails from Peter Mandelson’s time in government has shone a new light on his relationship with Wes Streeting. One exchange in particular has attracted attention because it demonstrates Mandelson’s total lack of humanity:

On July 24, 2025, Wes Streeting messages Mandelson saying that Starmer needs to follow Macron and 'up the ante' on Israel

He says Israel is 'committing war crimes before our lives'

Mandelson is withering about Streeting's intervention in a message to Pat McFadden less than 24… pic.twitter.com/ouDsNwNOhL

— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) June 1, 2026

That’s right; Mandelson is so inhuman that he almost makes the dead-eyed Streeting look like a compassionate human being.

Mandelson some kind of cartoon villain

We already knew Streeting had described Israel’s actions as “war crimes”. We knew this because Streeting himself released the emails in question in February. The following is the exchange between them:

[24/07/2025, 23:00:29] Wes Streeting: Am sure this will come up in coming days, so wanted to check in with you on recognition of Palestine and the domestic politics of it.

Keir’s statement today was excellent, but Macron’s statement tonight ups the ante.

Morally and politically, I think we need to join France.

Morally, because Israel is committing war crimes before our eyes. Their government talks the language of ethnic cleansing and I have met with our own medics out there who describe the most chilling and distressing scenes of calculated brutality against women and children.

Politically, a Commons vote will be engineered in September on recognition and we will lose it if we’re not ahead of it. There are no circumstances in which people like me or Shabana could abstain or vote against, for example. Conference will be a sea of Palestinian flags and the moderates will be waving them.

We need to be leading the charge on this. The alternative is being dragged there with enormous damage to Keir, the govt and the party.

I’ve never been a shrinking violent on Israel. I’ve supported LFI for over 20 years. Our sister party, Haaretz, and progressives are clear about what’s being done in their name and they oppose it.

I appreciate these things are always more complicated than they appear to those of us who aren’t up close as you are and I also appreciate how much Keir and David are giving to this personally.

But it is what it is. We need to lead, not follow.

[24/07/2025, 23:11:47] Lord Mandelson: I can see all this but I am worried that such a gesture now could blow a 2 SS out of the water if Israel decided that unilateral recognition justified further WB annexation which the US would be powerless to stop or reverse. That would be the end of it.

So I think we need to employ practical means to get a 2SS, not quickly I grant but realistically [written by Mandelson after almost two years of Israel’s genocide in Gaza]. The PA with reform and new leadership can advance this with Arab/US/European support. The alternative is a further deadlocked death spiral on an even greater scale than now.

[24/07/2025, 23:12:10] Wes Streeting: Israel is doing it anyway.

[24/07/2025, 23:12:39] Wes Streeting: This is rogue state behaviour. Let them pay the price as pariahs with sanctions applied to the state, not just a few ministers.

‘Hysterics’

Thanks to the newly released emails, we now know what Mandelson thought about Streeting’s opinions. Speaking to Pat McFadden a day later, Mandelson wrote:

[25/07/2025, 10:34:34] Peter Mandelson : By way, I received a wild long hysterical message from Wes about Israel. I pushed back. I can forward but reflects pretty badly on his maturity in my view.

[25/07/2025, 10:28:28] Pat McFadden: He is very active on the MPs WhatsApp groups on this subject

[25/07/2025, 18:37:50] Peter Mandelson : Emailed you Cab Off

[25/07/2025, 18:45:06] Pat McFadden: [thumbs up emoticon]

[25/07/2025, 22:31:02] Pat McFadden: I read the email and the longer note underneath. Very interesting. Happy to discuss. 10 o’clock news all on this for first 10 minutes.

To Mandelson, taking any sort of stand against war crimes is a sign of immaturity. This should be no surprise, given that he was a member of the New Labour government which pushed for the disastrous and illegal invasion of Iraq.

In a later exchange with McFadden, Mandelson would describe Streeting as “pathetic”, and say:

I think Wes is experiencing an early mid life crisis.

This is what ‘sensible’ centrist politics is all about – death, destruction, and the sneering self-assurance that anyone who opposes you is mentally unbalanced.

No praise for Streeting

On the one hand, you could say it’s admirable for a minister in the Starmer government to describe Israel’s actions as “war crimes”. We’ve no praise for Streeting, however, because:

He remained an integral member of Starmer’s government despite the UK’s ongoing support of Israel.
“War crimes” doesn’t go far enough; what we’re talking about is genocide.
Reading between the lines, Streeting seems less bothered about the human impact on the Palestinian people and more bothered about the political impact on the Labour Party.

If there’s a leadership contest with Streeting in it, he will use the above exchange to suggest he and Mandelson weren’t close. And while it’s true that Mandelson clearly loathed him, that doesn’t change the fact that Streeting was going out of his way to communicate with the twice-disgraced Epstein pal.

In other words, Mandelson hated him – not the other way around.

Featured image via Ian Forsyth (Getty Images) / Dan Kitwood (Getty Images)