News Story

Lord Peter Mandelson said the Government would “never regret” appointing him as Britain’s ambassador to the US, a note published alongside thousands of documents about the posting has revealed.

The second tranche of documents relating to Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to give the prestigious Washington job to Lord Mandelson rather than a career diplomat were released by the Government on Monday afternoon.

Lord Mandelson also apparently “declined to comply” with a request to hand over his personal phone and allow the Government to publish WhatsApp messages and other information related to his appointment, the documents showed.

Ahead of their publication, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman described the sweeping whole of Government effort to publish the documents as an “unprecedented piece of Government transparency”.

Ministers were braced for embarrassing revelations ahead of the publication of the files, which include thousands of previously private WhatsApp messages exchanged between figures at the top of Government.