Government isn’t asking Mandelson for his personal WhatsApp messages

As we reported, Starmer’s former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney claimed his phone was stolen in October last year. This caused controversy, with many accusing McSweeney of faking the theft to destroy WhatsApp messages between himself and Peter Mandelson. Lending further credence to these suspicions, the Times has now revealed that the government hasn’t asked Mandelson to hand over his personal devices:

Shocking

The Mandelson scandal exposed that many people in Starmer’s government like to play fast and loose with the truth, including Mandelson himself. Given this, it should be a given that all of Mandelson’s devices need to be searched — not just the ones he was supposed to be using. If the man was willing to lie about his connections to Jeffrey Epstein, we can assume he was equally comfortable sending official messages from an unofficial device.

Times political editor Swinford said that Mandelson:

handed over his work mobile when he was sacked as ambassador to the US because of his friendship with the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein

But he has not been asked by the Cabinet Office for any of the messages on his personal device

It has been left to a group of a dozen officials to attempt to “reconstruct” the contents of Mandelson’s phone by asking ministers and officials for their correspondence with the peer

Advertisement

This sounds like a truly nightmarish way of conducting an investigation. It’s like they’re trying to put pieces of shredded paper together despite knowing where the original document is.

Swinford continued:

The Times has been told that the Cabinet Office was so concerned about the limited nature of the disclosures that it has asked people for messages from their personal devices

It is also now asking people for group WhatsApp messages that involved Mandelson, having initially refrained from doing so

Why refrain from asking people for messages? And why not just ask Mandelson? To be fair, they should definitely do both, because there’s every reason to suspect Mandelson would delete any evidence. After all, this is the guy the authorities suspected of being a legitimate flight risk following his arrest.

Swinford further said:

Mandelson used his personal mobile in the run-up to his appointment as ambassador before switching over to a work mobile just under a month into the role. He resumed using his personal mobile on his return to the UK after he was sacked in September

Oh, okay, so it’s confirmed; he did use his personal phone for work business.

What on Earth is going on?

It’s so bad that even the Tories are looking less sleazy than Labour, as Swinford noted:

The Tories said that under the terms of the “humble address”, a parliamentary mechanism that forces the government to disclose information, the Cabinet Office should have requested the messages from Mandelson.

They said that the failure to do so “risks putting the government in contempt of parliament”

Mandelson exceptionalism

This is how Swinford ends his post:

Mandelson could not be compelled to hand it over, but others who used to work for government have been asked for messages from their personal devices

In other words, they’re allowed to ask, but those being investigated are under no obligation to comply.

It’s funny, isn’t it, because they almost certainly would have to comply if they were normal people who’d stolen a loaf of bread. That’s a proper crime, though, isn’t it — not like sharing state secrets with the 20th century’s most notorious paedophile.

Featured image via UKinUSA