A second senior Labour figure was unable to hand over any messages exchanged with Peter Mandelson because their mobile phone was stolen, it emerged today. Cabinet minister Nick Thomas-Symonds was unable to provide WhatsApps for yesterday's Mandelson Files release after his handset was snatched last year.
The crime took place on October 15 last year, and Mr Thomas-Symonds, the EU Relations Minister, reported it to police the same evening. But it means exchanges with Lord Mandelson from 2024, which were on his personal device, were lost. However, he explained the messages he could recall, which are understood to all have been before Lord Mandelson was appointed UK ambassador to the US.
His unfortunate brush with a criminal, first reported by Politico, echoes that suffered by former Downing Street chief of staff Morgan McSweeney five days later. Mr McSweeney, a close ally of Lord Mandelson, did not provide his WhatsApps, however the disclosure does include a page of group messages provided by Mr McSweeney.
Mr Thomas-Symonds and Lord Mandelson met in January 2025 for a meeting, details of which are in the documents released in the form of official minutes, which say they discussed next steps for the planned EU reset. An ally of Mr Thomas-Symonds said: 'Nick complied fully with the humble address, sharing all details of the messages he could recall, which were all prior to Mandelson taking up post. It is right that transparency is the only remedy.'
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: 'We were called on Wednesday, October 15 at around 23:25 hrs, with a man reporting his phone had been stolen by three people on bikes. The incident took place around half an hour earlier on Marsham Street, Westminster. Officers made initial inquiries, but the case was closed after no suspects could be identified.'
While the 1,500-page release yesterday included a series of WhatsApp exchanges with ministers in the files, it is not a complete record. As well as those lost to theft, some messages between ministers and Lord Mandelson 'may not have been backed up' because of disappearing messages or a change in devices, Keir Starmer's Chief Secretary Darren Jones admitted yesterday.
Lord Mandelson also apparently 'declined to comply' with a request to hand over his personal phone and allow the Government to publish WhatsApp messages and other information related to his appointment. Mr Jones said the Government could not compel him to do so as it does not have those powers when it comes to 'third parties outside of our employment'. However, a future court case could see those messages disclosed if prosecutors put one forward, he said.
Hundreds of documents showed ministers and officials sniping at each other over the fate of Keir Starmer's 'beleaguered' Government. The chaos was compounded by accusations of a cover-up, with more questions about what the 1,500-page file dump failed to reveal. The files also expose the extraordinary extent to which Peter Mandelson, at that point twice drummed out of government by past scandals, was still pulling the strings in Labour via his close friendship with the PM's then chief of staff Morgan McSweeney.
The light shone on what goes on behind the scenes included one calamitous confession in which the now Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden complained that Labour MPs were constantly demanding to know 'who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?' Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: 'Pat McFadden has said in private what he and the Prime Minister deny in public. They are no longer the Labour Party, they are the Welfare Party.'
In other revelations, Sir Keir, Rachel Reeves, Ed Miliband and Angela Rayner all faced criticism from senior Labour colleagues. But the dossier, compiled at a cost to the taxpayer of more than £1million, sheds little light on the Prime Minister's disastrous decision to appoint Mandelson as ambassador to the United States.
