Wes Streeting has said he felt like he was “hitting up against a brick wall” when raising concerns about Gaza within government, after leaked WhatsApp messages revealed Peter Mandelson called him “hysterical” over the issue. The messages were disclosed as part of a document release related to Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador.
In the WhatsApp exchanges, Mandelson criticised Streeting’s lobbying in July 2025, when he was health secretary, describing a message from him as “a wild long hysterical message about Israel”. Pat McFadden, another cabinet minister, later noted that Streeting had circulated videos and a note to cabinet, including a dossier from doctors who had worked in Gaza under Israeli bombardment. Mandelson called the intervention “pathetic” and suggested Streeting was experiencing “an early mid-life crisis”.
Responding to the Guardian, Streeting said he was “horrified by the war in Gaza” and had done everything he could behind the scenes to push for action. He shared eyewitness testimony from doctors to ensure the conflict had witnesses at the highest levels. He added: “I wasn’t by any means the only cabinet minister pushing for action, but we often felt like we were hitting up against a brick wall. Our concerns and motives were dismissed.”
The 22-page dossier, seen by the Guardian, contained graphic images of children with acute malnutrition and amputated limbs. One doctor described operating on up to a dozen children a day without adequate pain relief, noting that half the casualties were children. All doctors said they had never seen such trauma in young children in their years working in war zones.
Other messages between Mandelson and McFadden showed Mandelson describing Keir Starmer’s Downing Street as “beleaguered and bereft” and the prime minister as lacking “verve”. McFadden also said of Labour MPs: “Every meeting I have is: ‘Who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?’ They’re asking the wrong questions.” Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds described the messages as “embarrassing” but said they were released due to the government’s commitment to comply with a parliamentary motion.
