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Morgan McSweeney says advising Starmer to appoint Mandelson was ‘serious error of judgment’ – UK politics live | Politics
Morgan McSweeney says advising Starmer to appoint Mandelson was ‘serious error of judgment’
Morgan McSweeney is giving evidence now.
He starts with an opening statement, which he begins by recognising the harm done to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims.
He talks about the importance of public service.
I’ve spent much of my working life trying, in whatever role I held, to make this country fairer, stronger and more successful.
I have always believed public service is a privilege. It brings responsibility and scrutiny, but it also brings a meaningful chance to improve people’s lives. That is what motivated me in government.
He moves on to Mandelson.
The appointment of Manderson as ambassador was a serious error of judgment. I advised the prime minister in support of that appointment and I was wrong to do so.
As I said in my resignation statement, I resigned because I believe responsibility should rest with those who make serious mistakes. Accountability in public life cannot apply only when it is convenient.
The prime minister advice relied on my advice and I got it wrong.
Key events
McSweeney says he was ‘surprised’ Foreign Office did not get Epstein files material on Mandelson from US government
Back at the foreign affairs committee, Morgan McSweeney says there is “no way” that Peter Mandelson would have been appointed ambassador to the US if the government had known the information about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein that came out in the Epstein files.
But he suggests the Foreign Office should have been able to get some of this material from the US administration.
One of the things that subsequently surprised me – I would have assumed that, and maybe they did – but I would assume that our Foreign Office would have been in contact with us counterparts to see what information they held on him.
In the Commons Kemi Badenoch is opening the debate on the motion saying Keir Starmer should be referred to the privileges committee.
There is a live feed here.
Here is the text of the motion.
That this House
(1) notes the Rt hon Member for Holborn and St Pancras’s assurances on the floor of the House about “full due process” being followed in the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to the United States of America, in particular (but not limited to) answers given on 10 September 2025, 4 February and 22 April 2026, further notes his assertion on 20 April 2026 that he “had made it clear that my position was that the position was subject to developed vetting” and his assertions that “Sir Olly Robbins was absolutely clear that nobody put pressure on him to make this appointment” and that “No pressure existed whatsoever in relation to this case” on 22 April 2026; and
(2) accordingly orders that these matters be referred to the Committee of Privileges to consider whether, in making these and other related statements, the Rt hon Member may have misled the House, and whether such conduct amounts to a contempt of the House, bearing in mind the standards expected of Ministers as set out in the House’s own resolution on Ministerial Accountability and the Ministerial Code.
I will stick with the foreign affairs committe for now, but cover highlights from Badenoch’s speech later.
Thornberry intervenes to say she had hoped to finish this hearing at 1pm. They will go beyond that, she says. She hopes they will wrap up by 1.20pm, but they will definitely finish by 1.30pm, she says.
McSweeney says George Osborne seen as ‘very credible’ candidate for US ambassador
Q: Was George Osborne just on the shortlist as a stooge, to make Starmer pick Mandelson?
McSweeney says the civil service had a lot of warning that a Labour government would want to appoint a political figure as ambassador to Washington.
If Kamala Harris had won, Mandelson would not have been appointed, he says.
He says Osborne was a “very credible candidate” for the job.
McSweeney says the Cabinet Office did carry out due dilegence scrutiny for George Osborne when he was being considered as a candidate for the ambassador’s job.
Q: Why were these decisions not well documented?
McSweeney says decisions in government are taken in conversation, as well as on paper.
But he says how government decisions are recorded is not a matter for him.
Thornberry intervenes. She says it is all very well taking decisons orally, but they were not recorded in writing.
She says the government has not provided evidence as to how these decisions were made.
McSweeney is now being asked about his personal relationship with Mandelson.
Q: Did you attend regular dinners with him at his house?
McSweeney says he thinks he attended two meals in Mandelson’s house in 2024. There were other people there too, he says. One was a lunch, and one was a dinner, he thinks.
And he thinks he had two restaurant meals with Mandelson.
McSweeney says government officials under pressure to act quickly – but that’s not pressure ‘to lower standards’
Referring to claims Downing Street put pressure on the Foreign Office to approve Mandelson’s vetting, McSweeney says in January 2025 getting Mandelson’s appointment confirmed wasn’t one of the most important issues facing the government.
He goes on:
I think it’s important that we unpack this idea of pressure because there’s been a lot of conversation about it.
There’s pressure in government every day, and most that pressure comes from within.
Every civil servant minister, [the staff] I worked with, woke up every morning feeling pressure to make the country better, wanting to move faster – that’s where the pressure comes from.
And No 10’s job in all of this is to make sure that the prime minister’s decisions are acted on quickly.
But there is a “real difference” between that, “asking people to lower standards,” McSweeney sayd. “And we never did that.”
McSweeney says false claim he swore at officials has caused him ‘great deal of stress’
McSweeney says he is very glad that Philip Barton has confirmed that McSweeney did not swear at him. (See 9.36am.)
He says:
This swearing rumour is it is something that has caused me a great deal of stress for a number of months.
I do not know why people do this in politics, put around untrue rumours. They phone lots of journalists. Those journalists then phone lots of politicians … It’s damaging for people’s reputations. And I think it’s unfair for staff who can speak for themselves.
Here is a Guardian video from McSweeney’s opening statement.
Thornberry asks McSweeney to clarify the apparent discrepancy between what he said at 11.50am and what he said at 12.23pm.
Sweeney says at the time he put those questions to Mandelson he thought Mandelson was telling the truth.
It was only after the Bloomberg emails were published in September 2025 that he realised Mandelson had not told the truth.
He apologises if he was not clear in his earlier comments.
McSweeney says he did not try to get Mandelson appointed as favour, or because he regarded him as ‘hero’
McSweeney told the committee that he did not try to get Mandelson appointed ambassador as a favour for a friend, or because he regarded him as a “hero”. He said:
In every advice that I gave to the prime minister, hand on heart I thought I was operating in a motive in the national interest.
In politics, over decades, you know a lot of people. In 20 years in politics, I’ve had to fire friends from jobs. I’ve had to turn people down who were desperate for jobs, who were closer friends of mine than Mandelson, who really wanted jobs in No 10, or people who thought they were going to be ministers, because I’ve always tried to operate in national interest …
This was not some hero I was trying to get a job for. I thought that his skills as EU commissioner would help us to get the trade deal that I think the country needed, because we were very, very exposed after Brexit and getting that trade deal right was very important.
Thornberry is asking again about the questions McSweeney asked Mandelson about his relationship with Epstein.
McSweeney says he put the questions in writing because he thought Mandelson was more likely to tell the truth if he were replying in writing. And that way there would be a record.
Q: Did you tell the PM that you did not think Mandelson was telling you the full truth?
McSweeney says he did not say that to the PM.
Q: And did the PM say, if that was a problem, the DV will pick it up.
No, says McSweeney.
He says that at that point he thought Mandelson was telling the truth.
He also makes the point again that, because of the Met investigation, he cannot say what Mandelson said in his replies.
McSweeney says he had no plan in place for Mandelson failing vetting
McSweeney said that, if Mandelson failed his vetting, his appointment would have been withdrawn.
I didn’t have a contingency plan [for Mandelson failing vetting] in place, but was always aware that somebody could fail security vetting, was always aware that that was a possibility for any appointment that we made.
Asked if he thought Mandelson might fail vetting, McSweeney said:
No. And if it had happened, we’d have withdrawn the ambassadorship. It would have been a political embarrassment.
The head of the London Marathon has urged West Ham to show more “heart and soul” amid fears they could scupper Britain’s chances of hosting the 2029 World Athletics Championships.
While London’s bid is seen as the favourite, it has hit a major stumbling block with West Ham refusing to give up their stadium for around two weeks in September 2029 because the football season will be under way.
Hugh Brasher, who is part of the London 2029 bid team, admitted that the situation was further complicated by the Hammers facing relegation and the departure of the club’s vice chair, Karren Brady.
“Football is an interesting, very tribal, sport,” said Brasher. “Money talks. But sometimes people look at their heart, they look at their soul, and that’s the purpose.”
Brasher then cited the words of his father, Chris, when he came up with the idea of the London Marathon in an Observer article nearly 50 years ago.
“My father’s final words in the article in 1979 said: ‘London had the course, but did it have the heart and the soul to welcome the world?’ I would ask West Ham, do they have the heart and the soul to open the stadium?’
Brasher said that he expected talks with West Ham to take place in June, although he conceded that if they went down to the Championship it would have an impact.
“It becomes more complicated,” he said. “There are more games. That makes a difference. But it’s an Olympic stadium. It’s an amazing stadium. We believe that we can fill it. As an Olympic legacy, that’s all part of the bigger picture here. So, yeah, it’s complicated. Business and life are complicated.”
Rome, Munich, Nairobi as well as an Indian city are also in contention for the Championships. Final submissions from bidding cities are required by early August, with a decision made in September.
Brasher is the latest senior athletics figure to urge West Ham to see the wider picture after Keely Hodgkinson told the club that “the GB team will bring back more medals to that stadium than West Ham have seen in their entire history” if it was staged in London in 2029.
However Brasher struck a more conciliatory tone as he stressed that he was hopeful of finding a way of getting West Ham on board.
“I’m a really positive person,” added Brasher. “So I really, really hope and believe there is a way through.
“We have a government and mayor that is behind this bid. The general public is behind this bid, and we have athletes behind it, and we have a legacy that we believe we can deliver. And so therefore should we be able to find a way? Yes, we should.
“We’ve put together a great bid. It’s not our decision. That’s World Athletics’ decision. Yes, we have to get through West Ham. I believe we can.”
Lloyd-Lavery, an ex-history teacher at Richmond Lodge school, carried out the attacks in the 1970s.
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