A top Labour minister told Lord Mandelson he was “so sorry” after the peer was sacked, undisclosed messages have revealed.
Sir Keir Starmer’s top team was instructed to hand over any messages, which led to exposing “embarrassing” notes from the likes of Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden.
However, texts between Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones and the New Labour titan were not offered up in the second batch of Peter Mandelson files released on Monday.
But further digging revealed, on the day of his dismissal, Sir Keir’s right-hand man told the ex-ambassador: “You’ve been doing such a great job, and you worked wonders with (Donald) Trump. I’m so sorry about today.”
Mr Jones was also revealed to have sent critical messages about Chancellor Rachel Reeves while working as her deputy.
Additionally, he was said to have dished out criticism of Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister, and then-business secretary Jonathan Reynolds.
The frontbencher said leaving Labour’s key mission of growth in the trio’s hands “doesn’t fill you with confidence” in a damning retort to one of Lord Mandelson’s texts.
Mr Jones also sought advice from the disgraced peer on a possible reshuffle, The Spectator reports.
However, Mr Jones told MPs he did not have access to all of his own messages with Lord Mandelson as he used disappearing messages on the Meta platform.
Following initial reports of the “warm” messages between the two several weeks ago, Mr Jones denied the claims, saying: “No, I was asked what was going on in Downing Street…
“This was the week that I had just arrived as Chief Secretary. I don’t think I even had an office at the time.
“And I replied along the lines of I don’t know what’s happening. I’m not in the room. I’m sorry it all seems so difficult. And that was the exchange that I think has been referred to in piece… I wouldn’t say it was warm and I didn’t know what was taking place.”
At the start of the week, the Government published 1,500 documents, including emails, texts, and WhatsApp messages between special advisers and ministers, as well as Lord Mandelson.
Ministerial guidance, updated in 2023, warned against using the disappearing messages function if it threatens record-keeping or transparency.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman confirmed earlier this week that Sir Keir was using the function on his encrypted WhatsApp service as well.
Ms Reeves and then-foreign secretary David Lammy also used the function.
Earlier today, Downing Street maintained that Sir Keir still backed Mr Jones.
When asked about how the Prime Minister felt about the texts’ contents, his spokesman said: “I think you have the prime minister’s view and have had it repeatedly on this, and that is that he regrets appointing Peter Mandelson, and he is sorry to the victims who have suffered the unimaginable trauma that they have, and that couldn’t have been clearer throughout the last few months.”
But Mr Jones was not the only minister to have “embarrassing” texts exposed, with Mr McFadden venting to the ex-Cabinet Minister about internal squabbles within the party.
“Every meeting I have is ‘who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others’… They’re asking the wrong questions,” Mr McFadden said to Lord Mandelson.
