Set out Mandelson links, SNP urges Scottish Labour

Scottish Labour has been urged to set out its links with Peter Mandelson as the row over the former ambassador’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein continues.

Mandelson gave up his peerage yesterday after damning correspondence between himself and the US paedophile financier emerged.

Police are investigating after the UK Government referred material to the Met. Keir Starmer said the former Labour MP “betrayed our country” and “lied repeatedly”.

Starmer will today attempt to regain control of the narrative with a speech hailing Britain as a “decent” place where people are “bound by values, by common endeavour and by responsibilities we owe to one another as partners in the project of this great nation”.

Yesterday the government was forced to change course on the withholding of material related to Mandelson's appointment as US ambassador after angry Labour backbenchers joined Tory calls for publication. 

Starmer had said nothing that could be prejudicial to national security or international relations could go out, and the change will see such evidence instead referred to Westminster's intelligence and security committee.

Today the SNP has called on Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar to publish all correspondence and files relating to his party’s links with Mandelson.

Sarwar has been under pressure over a social media post he made last year in which he called Mandelson his “old friend”.  

Meanwhile, Mandelson attended a fundraiser for Scottish Labour MPs Gregor Poynton and Imogen Walker last summer. Walker, MP for Hamilton and Clyde Valley, is married to Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief-of-staff. McSweeney was instrumental in the decision to give Mandelson the ambassador job.

According to the i newspaper, Mandelson was also involved in the selection of Labour’s 2024 general election candidates. Scottish Labour said it runs candidate selections in Scotland.

Kirsty Blackman, the SNP’s chief whip, said: “More damaging information is dripping out by the day, including whistleblower claims about Peter Mandelson's role choosing Labour Party candidates at the last election. Mr Sarwar has not said what contact he had with Mandelson ahead of the election or whether Mandelson played any role in discussing, reviewing or choosing Scottish Labour Party candidates.

“There must be no Scottish Labour Party cover-up.”

Yesterday First Minister John Swinney ordered an “investigatory audit” into Scottish Government interactions with Mandelson.

The SNP leader said the work will focus on whether the interests of Scotland were “undermined as a consequence of the behaviour that Peter Mandelson has been involved in”.

Mandelson accompanied Swinney to his White House meeting with Donald Trump last year, in which he lobbied for a cut to whisky tariffs. Swinney stayed at Mandelson’s Washington residence during the trip.

A Scottish Labour spokesman said it was “morally bankrupt” to “try and see political advantage in Epstein’s rape of young women”.

He went on: “Scottish Labour is clear that Peter Mandelson’s conduct has been utterly despicable and it must be investigated in full.

“Given the SNP’s long history of cover-ups any calls for transparency should start with them getting their own house in order.”