Mandelson has refused to hand over his personal devices

On 1 June, the government released more of Peter Mandelson’s correspondence from his time as ambassador to the US. It did so because the public has demanded transparency on how this crooked Epstein associate came to return to government. And as we’ve seen, the newly released emails have not looked good for Starmer’s operation.

As it turns out, though, things do look better than they might have done. And that’s because Mandelson refused to hand over his own personal devices:

So the new Mandelson files don't include anything from Mandelson's own personal device – because he refused to hand it over to the government for searching.
Of course, McSweeney's phone was stolen after he'd selected only a handful of messages to turn over to the Cab Office pic.twitter.com/b5yySXCM6a

— The Fraud (@StarmertheFraud) June 1, 2026

Mandelson keeping it to himself

As Paul Holden, author of The Fraud, highlights above:

On 31 March the SRO wrote to Peter Mandelson – via his solicitors – to request any information held on his personal phone. Peter Mandelson declined to comply with this request. The Government has no further recourse to search the personal devices of Peter Mandelson.

Do you know why Peter Mandelson is refusing to voluntarily comply?

It’s because he’s Peter Mandelson – one of the least transparent politicians this country has ever produced.

And this is the problem, because Starmer knew this about him when he hired him. He also knew he was a close friend of the dead paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, despite later pretending to be surprised.

Vetting

In another newly released email, we learned more about the farcical process of vetting:

Wow. So Mandelson is asked to provide a list of foreign contacts for vetting. He snootily says that he has no further names to disclose than what had been raised in an earlier interview. He is then politely prompted to give more details, and then forwards it onto another junior… pic.twitter.com/tXH0b5SY9y

— The Fraud (@StarmertheFraud) June 1, 2026

Covering some of the other vetting issues, Skwawkbox reported for the Canary that Mandelson’s dodgy relationships included:

 his long-known closeness to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, links to Chinese finance minister Lan Fo’an and to Israeli military intelligence boss Tamir Hayman. All were flagged before Starmer appointed Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US — and ignored just as much Mandelson’s ardour for Epstein. A fourth compromising — and British — figure was also flagged, but has not yet been named publicly.

In other words, while these latest revelations make Mandelson look bad, there’s nothing yet which is worse than what Starmer’s operation already knew when they hired the man.

Featured image via Ben Pruchnie (Getty Images)