Peter Mandelson jibed that Wes Streeting was having 'an early mid-life crisis' in snide chats with a senior Cabinet minister, it was revealed today. The publication of the disgraced peer's WhatsApp messages from his time as US ambassador has detailed his disparaging view of the then-health secretary.
Lord Mandelson, in exchanges with Mr Streeting's fellow Cabinet minister Pat McFadden, suggested Mr Streeting was 'immature'. He moaned to Mr McFadden, a former adviser to Tony Blair, about how Mr Streeting had sent him a 'wild long hysterical message' about Israel.
The messages, sent between March and September last year, revealed how Lord Mandelson and Mr McFadden frequently gossiped about other Labour figures. They were among 1,500 pages of material covering the New Labour architect's disastrous appointment as Britain's top diplomat in Washington DC.
In one exchange, on 25 July 2025, Lord Mandelson told Mr McFadden, who was then Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, about his texts from Mr Streeting. 'By way, I received a wild long hysterical message from Wes about Israel. I pushed back. I can forward but reflects pretty badly on his maturity in my view,' he wrote.
In a separate exchange, on 29 July last year, Lord Mandelson said: 'I think Wes is experiencing an early mid life crisis.' Mr McFadden replied to Lord Mandelson: 'He is very active on the MPs WhatsApp groups on this subject.'
In another exchange, on 29 July last year, Mr McFadden told Lord Mandelson that Mr Streeting had 'circulated a series of videos and a note... to the whole Cabinet in advance of the meeting'. 'It is pathetic', Lord Mandelson replied, adding: 'I think Wes is experiencing an early mid life crisis.'
It came after Lord Mandelson sent Mr McFadden a social media post from the US State Department, which detailed the rejection by Donald Trump's administration of a UN-hosted two-state solution conference in New York.
In Mr Streeting's own WhatsApp messages with Lord Mandelson on 24 July 2025, which were previously released by Mr Streeting himself, the then health secretary discussed the recognition of a Palestinian state. 'Morally and politically, I think we need to join France,' Mr Streeting said of French President Emmanuel Macron's announcement that his country would formally recognise Palestine. 'Morally, because Israel is committing war crimes before our eyes. Their government talks the language of ethnic cleansing and I have met with our own medics out there who describe the most chilling and distressing scenes of calculated brutality against women and children. Politically, a Commons vote will be engineered in September on recognition and we will lose it if we're not ahead of it. There are no circumstances in which people like me or Shabana (Mahmood) could abstain or vote against, for example. Conference will be a sea of Palestinian flags and the moderates will be waving them. We need to be leading the charge on this. The alternative is being dragged there with enormous damage to Keir, the govt and the party.'
Mr Streeting resigned as health secretary last month after losing confidence in Keir Starmer's leadership. He is expected to stand in any contest to replace the Prime Minister.
