Cabinet Office to ask Mandelson to provide messages from personal phone
Peter Mandelson will be asked to supply messages from his personal phone as part of the investigation into his appointment as Keir Starmer’s ambassador to the US,In February, MPs forced the government to commit to publishing tens of thousands of documents after a controversy erupted over the prime minister’s awareness of the former peer’s links to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein before he was given the prestigious posting,The Cabinet Office is working to obtain as much information as possible about the process, according to No 10 sources,Mandelson has not yet been asked to hand over messages but will be told to provide everything he holds within the scope of the humble address, the parliamentary procedure that can be used to try to force the release of correspondence,On Friday, the Times reported that Mandelson had handed over his work phone after being sacked as US ambassador because of his close friendship with the late financier, but said the Cabinet Office had not asked for messages on his personal device.
Officials were said to be attempting to “reconstruct” the contents of his personal phone by asking ministers and officials for any correspondence.Downing Street sources said a team of officials were gathering communications, including WhatsApp messages and emails, from anyone who would have been in contact with Mandelson.While the former peer had not yet been asked for messages from his personal phone, he would be and that had always been “part of the plan”, they said.“This is a significant administrative process,” said a No 10 source.“There is a determination in government to comply in full with the humble address, but there is a process to follow.
We want to get this out there as soon as we can.”Parliament is now in recess, and it is understood that the information gathered will be put before parliament’s intelligence and security committee, which will assess whether releasing the documents would compromise national security.The Metropolitan police will also be given oversight of the information gathered to ensure it does not interfere with a separate investigation into allegations that Mandelson committed misconduct in public office.Concerns have been raised that exchanges relating to the appointment could be lost after the theft of Morgan McSweeney’s mobile phone last year.But the Guardian understands the Cabinet Office holds a number of text and email exchanges between Starmer’s former chief of staff and Mandelson.
A tranche of McSweeney’s correspondence is expected to be released publicly as part of the Mandelson files,It emerged this week that McSweeney did not disclose that he was Starmer’s chief of staff when he reported the theft of his phone, according to a transcript released by the Met in a highly unorthodox move for the force, which said it wanted to correct misreporting of the incident,Mandelson, a political appointment rather than a career diplomat, was sacked from his Washington role in September last year over his links with Epstein, who died in 2019,McSweeney became the focus of MPs’ ire, with many blaming him for pushing for the appointment,He quit Downing Street last month.
The prime minister said it was “far-fetched” to suggest that the theft of McSweeney’s phone was somehow connected with a subsequent push for the release of documents.Kemi Badenoch had “raised an eyebrow” in relation to accounts about the theft, a spokesperson for the Conservative leader said on Wednesday.On Thursday, Starmer said he “hates the fact” that he made a “mistake” over the appointment of Mandelson.“I dwell on it.I beat myself up about it,” he told Sky News’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast.
“Nobody has been harder on me in relation to the mistake I made there than me,It’s certainly not a mistake I’d ever repeat,”
Starmer vows to ‘fight’ social media firms to protect children from addiction
Keir Starmer has promised a “fight” with social media companies amid efforts to limit children’s use of mobile phones, tablets and TVs, as new official guidance recommends children under five spend no more than an hour a day on screens.The guidance, developed by a panel led by the children’s commissioner, Rachel de Souza and children’s health expert Prof Russell Viner, advises screen time for children under two should be avoided other than for shared activities.Ministers are also considering Australia-style measures to limit or ban social media for under-16s.Speaking at a school in south London about the new guidance, the prime minister said: “When there’s a lot going on, when children are having a tantrum, trying to find something to distract them is an obvious thing, and I don’t think parents and carers have had any guidance at all yet about what would be appropriate, what might be best.”The government is consulting on potential age restrictions on social media and other services, such as gaming sites and AI chatbots, as well as restrictions on addictive design features and risky functionalities, and better support for parents and families
Keep under-fives’ screen time to no more than an hour a day, UK advice says
Children under five should spend no more than an hour a day on screens, new government advice says.Screen time for children under two should be avoided except for shared activities encouraging interaction, families are advised.In addition, the government is considering Australia-style measures to limit or ban social media for under-16s.The guidance was developed by a panel led by the children’s commissioner, Rachel de Souza, and the children’s health expert Prof Russell Viner.Keir Starmer said the guidance would help families keep children safe and ensure they built healthy habits with screens
More than 6m vapes and pods discarded weekly in UK despite single-use ban, study finds
More than 6m vapes and vape pods are still being discarded every week in the UK, with waste management companies warning the sheer volume continues to strain recycling systems despite the ban on disposable e-cigarettes.According to research by the recycling campaign group Material Focus, the 6.3m vapes and pods thrown away each week in 2025 represented a 23% reduction from the previous year.This suggests the ban on sales of single-use vapes that came into effect on 1 June 2025 has had an impact on levels of waste, alongside a 31% drop in the number of vapes bought each week.However, the volume of waste is still creating problems
NHS bosses say resident doctors’ strike will cause ‘maximum harm’
NHS bosses have accused resident doctors of seeking to cause “maximum harm” to patients by striking for six days next month over pay and jobs.Wes Streeting has given resident – formerly junior – doctors in England until 2 April to reconsider their rejection on Wednesday of his “generous” offer to end the dispute. It would have given them £700m in extra pay over the next three years.The British Medical Association’s decision to withdraw from talks with the government and NHS chiefs aimed at settling the long-running dispute has sparked a war of words.Glen Burley, NHS England’s financial reset and accountability director, said during NHS England’s board meeting on Thursday that the BMA’s decision was “really disappointing for patients
Spanish woman who won legal battle for right to euthanasia has assisted death
A Spanish woman who spent months fighting her father for the right to euthanasia after being sexually assaulted and becoming paraplegic has finally ended her life on her own terms by means of an assisted death.Noelia Castillo, 25, had struggled with psychiatric illness since she was a teenager and tried to kill herself in October 2022 after being sexually assaulted. The attempt left her in constant pain and using a wheelchair. Eighteen months later, she used Spain’s euthanasia law, which was introduced in 2021, to secure permission to end her life.But her attempts to obtain euthanasia had been opposed by her father and by Christian Lawyers, an ultra‑conservative advocacy group that had supported him
Labour failing to shift power from Whitehall to local areas, analysis finds
Keir Starmer’s drive to overhaul public services is failing to live up to its aims of shifting power from Whitehall to local areas, a report from the Institute for Government (IfG) has found.Last summer, the government set out its three guiding principles for reform aimed at making public services such as the NHS, court system and children’s social care easier to access and better at helping people.The objectives were to make public services “organised around people’s lives”, to improve outcomes by focusing on prevention of problems, and devolving power to local areas that understand the needs of their communities best.However, the IfG’s analysis found that none of these were on course to happen by the next election, which is due by summer 2029.Stuart Hoddinott, a public services expert at the IfG who wrote the report, said: “Our assessment is that by the end of this parliament, on the government’s current trajectory, public services will be more centralised, integration will have slowed or even reversed, and a measurable shift towards prevention will not have occurred
F1’s Japanese GP, WSL derbies and international football – follow with us
McLaren and Lando Norris aim to put horror start behind them at Japanese Grand Prix
RFU stops short of delivering full backing for Borthwick but denies Farrell talks
Can Adam Freier’s California Legion solve America’s rugby problem?
The Strong, silent type: UConn’s standout is making basketball stardom look easy
Chess: iconic Reykjavik Open sparks memory of Bobby Fischer from 1973