Former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner played a pivotal role in the release of the Mandelson files – and may have unwittingly damaged her party by doing so, former deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara has argued.
The second release of files, which was deeply humiliating for the government, came on Monday and included scathing messages between ex-US ambassador Peter Mandelson and MPs calling Keir Starmer’s government "pathetic", "disappointing", and "beleaguered".
The 1,500-page tranche was the second batch of files released in response to a humble address delivered by the Tories in February, requesting the release of all files relating to Peter Mandelson's appointment.
But the address was only voted through by Labour MPs after intervention from deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.
“Rayner was very strongly on the attack for Keir Starmer, back in February”, Ms MacNamara, former deputy cabinet secretary and co-host of In The Room, highlighted in the latest episode.
“A humble address can’t pass on opposition votes alone,” she explained. “It needed Labour votes, and it was Rayner getting involved which got it through.
“She brokered with the Tories to get the terms of the address changed and have the [Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament] involved. It softened it and made it more reasonable for Labour MPs.
“It was the Labour Party who voted for this. Labour backbenchers have inflicted this on themselves, on their own government.”
Hear more of Helen and Cleo’s political analysis in the full Mandelson files episode:
The release of the Mandelson files is another blow to Starmer. On 14 May, former health secretary Wes Streeting resigned and days later announced his bid for Labour leadership, should a race be triggered by 20% of Labour MPs backing one candidate.
On 15 May, Makerfield MP Josh Simons resigned, triggering a byelection and clearing the way for party favourite Andy Burnham to make his return to Westminster.
Cleo Watson, former special advisor to Theresa May and Boris Johnson and co-host of In The Room, added: “Humble addresses are very dangerous. If the government had just had the gumption to withstand the 24-hour news cycle, it could have avoided all of this.
“They managed to persuade Labour that sending Starmer to the Privileges Committee wasn’t a good idea. Why not the same for the humble address?”
While a humble address must be complied with by the government, the terms of release can be negotiated. MacNamara argues that the ‘abundance of transparency’ seen in the document release is damaging, as well as avoidable. “When it had died down a bit, the government should have gone back to the House of Commons and said: this humble address is a barn door, it's gonna waste millions of pounds of taxpayers' money on something inappropriate and improper. They could have complied while narrowly defining the scope and had it done in a month.
“It is heartbreaking to think about the amount of time and effort that has gone into this. It is net damaging to the reputation of the government. You do not get the sense of a competent and well-functioning government here, and you have all sorts of super boring but extremely important constitutional norms that have just been broken, and obviously, I find that problematic.”
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