What a consequential week it was!
Winding down to the weekend (who works Fridays after all?) and with the PM kow-towing having bi-lats with President Xi in Peking Bejing, Pat McFadden made a statement to the House on Thursday 29th January setting out the government’s totally unsurprising decision not to pay the WASPI women compensation for late or confusing notice of changes to their pension age, confirming the announcement made by Liz Kendall in December 2024
WASPI
In McFadden’s hands the announcement of the end of the world would be unlikely to attract any real attention, but this final if metaphorical nail in the WASPI womens’ campaign was hammered in with quiet determination.
Quite a lot of the 3.6million women who might have been effected by gaps in the communication of the 1995 decision to equalise pension ages and its 2011 acceleration will disagree, but it has been clear for some years that their concerns will not prevail.
Holocaust Memorial Day
An excellent speech to open the backbench “debate” on Holocaust Memorial Day by the Labour member for Bury St Edmunds and former ENT surgeon Peter Prinsley MP reminding everyone of the need to just get the National Holocaust Memorial done before the act of memory itself passes entirely to a generation that has no direct experience (mine!)
It is also worth taking a look at an excellent summary of the value of remembrance from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.
It reminded TWOP of Leonard Cohen’s riff on Albert Eichmann and the banality of evil recently recited at a school memorial function.
from “Flowers for Hitler, 1964
Mandy
But of course, the story of the week was the growing sense of disgust at Lord Mandelson’s continuation of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein through and after the late paedophile financier’s 2008 conviction for child prostitution following the latest release of Epstein files by the DoJ in the USA on Friday 30th January. The Prime Minister came to the Chamber on Monday (2nd January) to make his formal report on the (limited) consequences of his four-day visit to China and Japan, but as a result was forced to experience the increasing incredulity of the House to his appointment of Lord Mandelson to the Ambassadorship to the USA in February 2025, just 12 short months ago. The call for Mandelson’s behaviour to be investigated by the police was made forcefully by the SNP’s leader in Westminster, Stephen Flynn MP and in an unusually effective intervention by the leader of the LibDems and King of Slapstick, Sir Ed Davey. Probably wisely, the PM slipped away without “Mandelson” passing his lips (no scurrilous suggestions here please, Ed.)
Instead, the PM left it to the “Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister” (gah!) to try to channel Members’ increasing rage away from No 10. This was an effort fated to fail as poor old Hapless Darren was left to argue that his punctilious boss had just not known about Mandelson’s continuing relationship with Epstein and that his Lordship had very naughtily lied about this during “vetting” (which seems to be a new term for “quick phone chat with Morgs”), prior to his appointment.
Props to Alex Burghart MP (Brentwood & Ongar, Con, Shadow CofDL and de facto Shadow Deputy PM) and Lady Nugee (aka Dame Emily Thornberry MP, Islington South & Finsbury, Lab, Chairman, Foreign Affairs Select Committee) who seemed to have a rare moment of clarity untroubled by white vans and successfully refocused the Chamber’s interest on Mandelson’s inappropriate transmission of market-sensitive information and advice to JP Morgan via Epstein in 2009/10 while serving as Business Secretary. She really does NOT like Sir Keir.
The “No 10” hope obviously had been that they could “turn” the House in to considering making changes to the process through which peers could have their peerages removed (such an obvious reaction, rather than, say, reforming the whole basis of the second house to an elected chamber for instance – presumably too much like hard work.) As a child – well, technically – could have told Darren before he rose to speak, this was never going to work. The Government’s position continued to sink throughout the hour that Mr Jones attempted to steer the debate into calmer waters, despite all attempts to dead-bat the bowling in to the long grass. DJ’s appearance at the Despatch Box had achieved nothing material, but also, lost nothing and stretched time to allow No. 10’s big brains (still looking at you at this stage Morgs) to try to think of a new defence.
Notification of Lord Mandelson’s resignation from the House of Lords came through an announcement by the new Lord Speaker, Lord Forsyth of Drumlean, in the Other House the following day (3rd February) that “the Clerk of the Parliaments has today received notification from Lord Mandelson of his intention to retire from the House.” This caught little attention, however, as pent-up outrage reached gale force while the Commons confined itself to questions for the Justice Secretary and an urgent question asking whether the Government would proscribe the Iranian Revolutionary Guard (met with an answer entirely devoid of significance) and a lengthy debate of the second reading of the Government’s Bill to remove the two-child cap on universal credit payments. There was; however, an amusing adjournment debate on the impact of Government policy on fish & chip shops, courtesy of John Cooper MP (Dumfries & Galloway, Conservative.) Why? Because “things were occurin’ ” off-stage.
An Address, be it hever so ‘umble
Outside the House, Press and media attention continued to build on the Government through Tuesday 3rd February and the Conservatives started to brief that they intended to introduce an humble Address to force the Government to release all papers relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment. (The use of this parliamentary device was actually revived and re-purposed by Keir Starmer himself while Shadow Brexit Secretary in November 2017 to force the government to release their Brexit impact assessments. A sweet irony.) Starmer’s ‘umble haddress:
“That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, That she will be graciously pleased to give directions that the list of sectors analysed under the instruction of Her Majesty’s Ministers, and referred to in the Answer of 26 June 2017 to Question 239, be laid before this House and that the impact assessments arising from those analyses be provided to the Committee on Exiting the European Union.”
hansard
The Conservatives’ motion for a humble Address was working away in the background while the House went tra-la-la on Tuesday, but those dastardly Tories were aiming for the day on which the PM would be forced to face the House for PMQs on Wednesday.
The Stage is Set
12:00noon PMQs – LOTO rose at 12:03pm to make a brief, focused and consequently powerful attack on the Prime Minister’s handling of the appointment of Lord Mandelson as the UK’s Ambassador to the USA and his subsequent termination of that appointment. See parliament.tv video record, but for those who like a little bit of text in their lives:
“The whole House will be disgusted by the latest revelations about Jeffrey Epstein. All of us want to see his victims get justice, but the political decision to appoint Epstein’s close associate, Peter Mandelson, as Britain’s ambassador to Washington goes to the very heart of this Prime Minister’s judgment. When he made that appointment, was he aware that Mandelson had continued his friendship even after Epstein’s conviction for child prostitution?”
LOTO stuck to Mandelson for all 5 of her follow-up questions, introducing discussion of the Humble Address to be debated after PMQs that would force HMG to disclose all papers concerning Lord Mandelson’s appointment to the House and suggesting that HMG’s hostility to the disclosure of all papers could be handled by releasing those papers in their entirety to the Intelligence and Security Committee to avoid the need to disclose papers publicly that contained information prejudicial to national security. This was an effective and sustained series of questions that left the PM looking evasive and without clear lines of defence and even succeeded in encouraging support from Labour backbenchers. (Commons Rule #101 “Always Stick the Knife in When Your Man is Down.”)
12:51pm Alex Burghart (Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, de facto Deputy Shadow PM) moved his “Humble Address” asking the monarch to require the Government to lay all documents concerning the appointment of Lord Mandelson as Ambassador to the USA before the House, viz.:
That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty, That he will be graciously pleased to give directions to require the Government to lay before this House all papers relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment as His Majesty’s Ambassador to the United States of America, including but not confined to the Cabinet Office due diligence which was passed to Number 10, the Conflict of Interest Form Lord Mandelson provided to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), material the FCDO and the Cabinet Office provided to UK Security Vetting about Lord Mandelson’s interests in relation to Global Counsel, including his work in relation to Russia and China, and his links to Jeffrey Epstein, papers for, and minutes of, meetings relating to the decision to appoint Lord Mandelson, electronic communications between the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff and Lord Mandelson, and between ministers and Lord Mandelson, in the six months prior to his appointment, minutes of meetings between Lord Mandelson and ministers in the six months prior to his appointment, all information on Lord Mandelson provided to the Prime Minister prior to his assurance to this House on 10 September 2025 that ‘full due process was followed during this appointment’, electronic communications and minutes of all meetings between Lord Mandelson and ministers, Government officials and special advisers during his time as Ambassador, and the details of any payments made to Lord Mandelson on his departure as Ambassador and from the Civil Service.—(Alex Burghart.)
commonsbusiness.parliament.uk
Nick Thomas-Symonds (Paymaster-General and Cabinet Office Minister and biographer of Clement Attlee of course, as all diligent A-Level students of the 1951 General Election may recall) moved a Government amendment that sought to restrict the documents ordered to be disclosed to those that were not “prejudicial to UK national security or international relations” and suggesting that the identification of the documents that it would be safe to disclose to the House should be determined by the Cabinet Secretary. The Government was set on its containment strategy it seemed but then, dun-dun-dun (is that how you actually spell that, Ed?)
But who is this we see casually sharpening a rusty knife from the backbenches? Angela Rayner MP (Ashton-under-Lyne, Lab and recently Deputy PM, currently subject to an HMRC tax investigation) made a brief intervention to recommend that documents should be filtered by the Intelligence and Security Committee.
The Right Honourable Member’s remarks are worth setting out in full as they were mercifully brief: “Given the public disgust, the sickening behaviour of Peter Mandelson and the importance of transparency, in 2022 I proposed a Humble Address, seeking information about personal protective equipment, which the Conservative party resisted — my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier) mentioned that earlier. Should the ISC not have the same role now, keeping public confidence in the process?” Respect. Slight malapropism, but slotted home nicely.
During the course of the subsequent, heated (and lengthy) debate, the Government, at the Speaker’s suggestion, through the ever-so-polite, ever-so-dead-in-the-water Thomas-Symonds, agreed to introduce a “manuscript amendment” to the Humble Address to refer documents related to Mandelson’s appointment, but potentially prejudicial to UK national security or international relations, to the Intelligence and Security Committee, or as the documentation would have it:
Amendment (a) proposed, at the end of the Question, to add “except papers prejudicial to UK national security or international relations.” (Nick Thomas-Symonds.)
commonsbusiness.parliament.uk
Amendment to Amendment (a) moved, at the end of Amendment (a), to add “which shall instead be referred to the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament.”
(Chris Ward.)
On this basis the motion to authorise the Humble address passed at 6:59pm. Not to mention huge Government embarrassment, humiliating climb-down and crystal-clear demonstration that Sir Keir had not had any sense of the mood of the House when he scarpered after PMQs.
And Breathe…
After a very high-octane Wednesday, the House was understandably quiet on Thursday. There were Backbench debates on road safety (I kid you not) and the risk of genocide in Gaza and a ministerial statement from Yvette Cooper on Sudan following her visit there. But rarely does a day in Parliament seem to have the combination of technical detail, high theatre, baleful comedy (in the form of Nick Thomas-Symonds “I hope the House has seen, even over the course of this debate, the constructive approach I have tried to take”) and significant, immediate consequences far outside the walls of the Palace of Westminster. The Prime Minister was wounded in absence and only his reaction and action outside the House over the next few days will determine if the wound is mortal. TWOP suspects that it is a deep wound, but that the rites will not be read until after a protracted, painful and lingering death sometime in May. 2026.
Thank you for reading and please check out our instagram @theworldofukpolitics,
Alex
Leave a Reply