BURSTPM under intense pressure to explain what he knew before PMQs last week when he gave the former US ambassador his backing
Jacqui Smith, the skills minister, was the voice of the government on TV and radio this morning. Asked about the Tory questions for Keir Starmer about the Peter Mandelson emails, Smith said Starmer did not personally see the relevant emails until Wednesday afternoon.
She told the Today programme:
What happened on Tuesday was that media sources came forward to the Foreign Office with extracts from the emails. The Foreign Office asked questions of Peter Mandelson.
It was on Wednesday, and in fact not until after prime minister’s questions, that No 10 and the prime minister saw the detail of those emails – as I’ve just outlined the particularly egregious things that were said and exposed in those emails.
We did know, of course, about Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. It was a relationship that Lord Mandelson had been clear that he regretted and that he’d apologised about.
What we didn’t know was the depth of that relationship, the nature of it, the fact that he was trying to coach Jeffrey Epstein to avoid the consequences of his actions, the impact that that understandably, therefore, had on the victims of Epstein’s terrible crimes.
1. On Monday, Bloomberg contacted Peter Mandelson with excerpts from the Mandelson/Epstein Files. These were then sent to the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office and Downing Street. Were you aware before Prime Ministers Questions at midday on Wednesday, 10 September of the existence of the emails? Had you been briefed on their contents?
2. On Wednesday at 0809, in an interview with Harry Cole, Mandelson admitted that there was ‘a lot of traffic, correspondence changes between us [Mandelson and Epstein] absolutely. And we know those are going to surface’. You then told the House of Commons you had ‘confidence’ in Mandelson and ‘full due process’ was followed. Did you ask your staff at any point prior to appearing in the House of Commons for what more information might surface? Did you receive a briefing ahead of Prime Minister’s Questions regarding Mandelson and Epstein, and covering the Bloomberg emails?
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