MPs have agreed that ministers will have to share papers relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador,Originally the government wanted to retain the power to block the publication of certain papers relating to matters “prejudicial to UK national security or international relations”,Instead, after the government altered plans following backbench pressure from senior Labour MPs Angela Rayner and Dame Meg Hillier, the relevant documents will be referred to the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) in Parliament,That amendment has now been nodded through by MPs,MPs have agreed that ministers will have to share papers relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador.

Originally the government wanted to retain the power to block the publication of certain papers relating to matters “prejudicial to UK national security or international relations”.Instead, after the government altered plans following backbench pressure, the relevant documents will be referred to the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) in parliament.Documents relating to Mandelson’s appointment as British ambassador will not be released today, Cabinet Office minister Chris Ward said.Ward did not confirm when the documents would be released but said it would be “as soon as possible”.The Metropolitan police said it has asked No 10 not to release “certain documents” about Mandelson because it could “undermine” its investigation.

However, the speaker, Lindsay Hoyle, said the Met has “no jurisdiction” over the Commons,Earlier in PMQ’s, Keir Starmer confirmed that he knew, when appointing Mandelson US ambassador in December 2024, that he had remained friends with Jeffrey Epstein after his conviction,Peter Mandelson’s involvement with the US tech company Palantir must be exposed to full public transparency, campaigners have said, amid fears he may have leaked more sensitive information than is alleged in his emails to Jeffrey Epstein,Palantir, an $300bn startup that provides military technology to the Israel Defense Forces and AI-powered deportation targeting for Donald Trump’s ICE units, has UK government contracts worth more than £500m,Global Counsel, a lobbying company Mandelson co-founded and part-owns, also works for Palantir.

The cabinet secretary, Sir Chris Wormald, is being urged to release information about Mandelson’s role when the British embassy arranged for Keir Starmer to visit Palantir’s showroom in Washington DC in February 2025 shortly after Mandelson became ambassador to the US.Peter Mandelson’s involvement with the US tech company Palantir must be exposed to full public transparency, campaigners have said, amid fears he may have leaked more sensitive information than is alleged in his emails to Jeffrey Epstein, write Robert Booth and Dan Sabbagh.Palantir, an $300bn startup that provides military technology to the Israel Defense Forces and AI-powered deportation targeting for Donald Trump’s ICE units, has UK government contracts worth more than £500m.Global Counsel, a lobbying company Mandelson co-founded and part-owns, also works for Palantir.The cabinet secretary, Sir Chris Wormald, is being urged to release information about Mandelson’s role when the British embassy arranged for Keir Starmer to visit Palantir’s showroom in Washington DC in February 2025 shortly after Mandelson became ambassador to the US.

Mandelson and Starmer met the company’s chief executive Alex Karp and were shown the company’s military technology.Karp signed a strategic partnership with the UK defence secretary, John Healey, seven months later and in January the Ministry of Defence (MoD) signed a £241m three-year contract with Palantir to “boost military AI and innovation”.A Cabinet Officer minister has set out how documents relating to Lord Peter Mandelson will be released to the Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC).Chris Ward said: “Release of information will be done, either through the Cabinet Secretary working with independent lawyers, or if the material is deemed to be potentially conflicting with national security or foreign relations, it will be handed to the ISC, who are independent.They can make the decision.

He added: “There will not be political involvement for ministers,“There will not be political involvement from Number 10 in this process – this is the cabinet secretary and the ISC working with lawyers on it,”Ward said some documents could touch on sensitive issues, including foreign intelligence and trade,After the release of a vast tranche of documents and emails that shed further light on the close relationship between Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein, the government has come under intense pressure to release details about its vetting process before Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador in December 2024,The prime minister confirmed for the first time on Wednesday that he had known about Mandelson’s longer-term relationship with Epstein before appointing him US ambassador, saying the former peer had “lied repeatedly” about the extent of his contact with the late child sex offender.

That Starmer knew Mandelson had kept ties with Epstein after his conviction was widely reported when the former cabinet minister lost his job Washington in September,A Downing Street source said there had been reports linking Mandelson and Epstein before the appointment, including after the disgraced financier was convicted, which had been looked at as part of the appointment process,“Peter Mandelson lied to the prime minister, hid information that has since come to light and presented Epstein as someone he barely knew,” said a Downing street source,Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) should start an investigation into Lord Peter Mandelson’s tenure as EU trade commissioner from 2004 to 2008,The Clacton MP said there were “potential fraud, corruption and ethics violations” committed by Lord Mandelson relating to his relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Farage said in a letter to new Olaf director-general Petr Klement, who started in the job on Monday, that in May 2010, at the height of the Eurozone crisis, Lord Mandelson leaked to Epstein the EU’s 500 billion euro bailout of Greece hours before it was publicly announced.Noting that after leaving office Lord Mandelson founded lobbying firm Global Counsel, Farage said commissioners have clear confidentiality and ethical obligations, and are required to behave with integrity, including after they have left office.“In sum, Lord Mandelson has potentially used his EU office for personal financial gain and/or has leaked information confidential to the Commission to a private individual in breach of his professional secrecy obligations,” the former UKIP leader said.“His conduct is arguably sufficiently egregious for him to forfeit his pension.I believe that these allegations warrant an investigation by Olaf.

”Following tonight’s agreement in the House of Commons, a Downing Street spokesperson said : “Peter Mandelson’s actions were unforgivable.“He lied to the prime minister, hid information that has since come to light and presented Jeffrey Epstein as someone he barely knew.“We will comply with the motion, including publishing documents relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment, which will show the lies he told.”The Metropolitan Police has “no jurisdiction” over the Commons, Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said, after the force said the release of certain documents related to Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US would “undermine” their investigation into the disgraced peer.Hoyle told the Commons: “The Metropolitan Police have no jurisdiction on what this House may wish to do.

It will be whether the Government provides or not.But just to let you know, they cannot dictate to this House.“I’m going to leave it at that.”Conservative former minister Simon Hoare had asked the Speaker if he will be “working with the Cabinet Office to ensure the rights and privileges of members of this House are protected”.“You know, as well as I do, Sir, the importance of privilege to this place,” Hoare said.

Documents relating to Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment as British ambassador will not be released today, Cabinet Office minister Chris Ward said.He told the Commons: “I just want to confirm to the house the material will not be released today because of the conversation with the Metropolitan Police over that, but it will be released as quickly as possible, in line with the process set out before the House.”Ward did not confirm when the documents would be released but said it would be “as soon as possible”.“We want to get with this,” he said.“There is a lot of material here to go through.

We will get through this as quickly as possible,Other humble, other humble addresses have taken a number of weeks or months,”MPs have agreed that ministers will have to share papers relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador,Originally the government wanted to retain the power to block the publication of certain papers relating to matters “prejudicial to UK national security or international relations”,Instead, after the government altered plans following backbench pressure from senior Labour MPs Angela Rayner and Dame Meg Hillier, the relevant documents will be referred to the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) in Parliament.

That amendment has now been nodded through by MPs.Chris Ward, the cabinet office minister, defended the government’s decision to introduce an amendment that would give parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) the right to oversee documents to do with the vetting of Peter Mandelson.Ward told MPs: “In line with the manuscript amendment, papers determined to be prejudicial to national security or international relations will be referred to the ISC.“The ISC are independent.They are rigorous.

They are highly respected,They will then decide what to do with the material that is sent to them,”He added the cabinet secretary, Chris Wormald, will work “directly in hand with the ISC” and he will “write to the ISC setting out that process”,The cabinet office minister, Chris Ward, has insisted that the prime minister “acted” when “new information came to light” about Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein,Ward told the Commons: “It’s clear from all sides of the House today that they share the public’s anger at Mandelson’s treachery, his lies and his deceit.

“As the prime minister said earlier, Mandelson betrayed this country.He lied to the prime minister.He lied during the vetting process, which I will return to because a number of members raised it.Frankly, I suspect he’s still lying now.“That’s why, since new information came to light, the prime minister over the weekend has acted in a number of ways.

”He also cited Keir Starmer instructing the cabinet secretary to investigate all papers released by the US Department of Justice, the government referred material to the police and since then the Met have launched an investigation.Ward added Mandelson wouldn’t have come “within a million miles of government” if the PM knew now what he claims that he didn’t know when he appointed him in 2024.Nigel Farage’s two-day trip to Davos cost more than £50,000 after he was given two guest passes by an Iranian-born billionaire, documents show.The Reform UK leader officially declared his attendance at the conference on the register of MPs’ interests, after giving speeches at the Switzerland summit in which he pledged to “put the global elites on notice”.Despite previously having dismissed the World Economic Forum as a jaunt for “globalists”, Farage also accepted £1,100 of luxury hotel accommodation from the conference organisers.

The Guardian revealed last month that Farage had his trip to Davos paid for by Sasan Ghandehari, which the Reform UK leader refused to confirm at the time,He was registered at the forum under the banner of HP Trust, which is the family office of Ghandehari and describes itself as having a portfolio value in excess of $10bn (£7,4bn),HP Trust said Farage was an honorary and unpaid adviser since about 2018, but the Reform UK leader disputes that he has ever worked for them and declared no role for the firm on the register,Neha Gohil is a Guardian Midlands correspondent.

Labour MP Matt Bishop told the Guardian he was still unsure whether he would be voting with the government despite the amendment in place that parliament’s intelligence and security committee will play a role in the vetting of files related to Peter Mandelson,He said:I’m still not there yet,I think there needs to be more … I will seriously consider still voting against the government,I just need to see and understand a little bit more first,Bishop, the MP for Forest of Dean, said he wanted to see the government acknowledging the victims of Epstein more than they have so far.

He said he told Labour whips beforehand that he would walk out of the chamber if victims of Epstein were not mentioned by the government.“I want to see what we are going to do to give victims the confidence,” he said, adding that he is pushing for the Violence Against Women strategy to be implemented as soon as possible.The MP described how Labour colleagues who had been “extremely loyal” to the government and had never opposed the Starmer administration were now “voicing concerns”.He said: “There’s anger across the house from all angles.”Earlier, Bishop told the House he “can not in good faith support a position that risks further eroding trust in our commitment to justice.

”“Not because it’s politically convenient to me, but because it’s morally necessary, I am voting with the victims”, he added.Here is the full quote from Cmdr Ella Marriott from the Metropolitan police saying the Met has asked No 10 not to release some of the Mandelson files.(See 6.14pm.)She said:As with any investigation, securing and preserving any potential evidence is vital.

For this reason, when approached by the UK government today with their intent to publish material, we reviewed it immediately and advised that the release of specific documents could undermine our current investigation.We therefore asked them not to release certain documents at this time.Going forward as material is made available to us, and if we identify further documents that we believe could prejudice our investigation, we will continue to ask the government to pause their release until such time as the risk of prejudice no longer exists.The integrity of our investigation is paramount to securing justice.We are grateful for their cooperation.

We continue to assess all relevant information brought to our attention as part of this investigation.That is all from me for today.Nadeem Badshah is taking over now.In the Commons Alicia Kearns (Con) is speaking now.She starts by quoting from the “fresh, firm and creamy” Epstein email quoted earlier.

(See 3,02pm,) She said this may not have been known when Peter Mandelson was appointed ambassador,But it was known that he had stayed at Epstein’s house, after Epstein had been convicted for child sex offences, when he was business secretary,(See 1.

01pm.)This is from PA Media.The Metropolitan police has asked the government not to release “certain documents” relating to Jeffrey Epstein because it could “undermine our current investigation”, Cmdr Ella Marriott, from the force, has said.Jeremy Corbyn, the Your Party MP and former Labour leader, told Sky News that he wanted a public inquiry into Peter Mandelson.Explaining why he was not happy about the plan for the intelligence and security committee to review Mandelson material being held back, he said:I don’t think the political establishment in Westminster or the senior echelons of the civil service can be trusted to undertake the kind of inquiry that’s necessary in these circumstances - because the web of Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein goes very wide