A TOP Labour minister reportedly told Peter Mandelson he was "so sorry" after he was sacked as UK ambassador to the US over his links to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Prime Minister – a Cabinet position created especially for him – offered his condolences to the now-disgraced Labour peer, according to previously unseen messages revealed in the Spectator.
On Monday, the UK Government released three 500-page files containing key documents and personal WhatsApp messages between Mandelson and senior government ministers and staff.
However, the release did not include the messages obtained and published by the Spectator.
Jones is one of several ministers who previously said they had nothing to release to the Cabinet Office investigation because they had previously deleted messages or changed phones.
He is understood to have replaced his phone after he began his role at the Cabinet Office in September last year.
In a text sent on the day Mandelson was sacked as ambassador, Jones said: “You’ve been doing such a great job and you worked wonders with Trump. I’m so sorry about today.”
Politico reports that the message was sent during a conversation which had been instigated by Mandelson, and does not signal that Jones believes the ex-ambassador was wrongly dismissed.
Speaking in the Commons previously, Jones said: "As the minister explained to MPs: ‘Some messages may not have been backed up where devices may have been changed or disappearing messages were turned on for reasonable and permitted reasons, including before the dismissal of Peter Mandelson or the passing of the humble address, myself included.’"
He said that he "recall[ed] ... having some limited exchanges with Peter Mandelson over Whatsapp", but that "these conversations did not involve transacting government business and were in line with official guidance on the use of non-corporate communications channels at the time".
Jones also apologised to the victims of Epstein, adding: “Did I at best subconsciously treat Peter Mandelson differently because I believed him to have influence and power in the Labour Party? And I think the answer to that question is yes, I did."
The messages published by the Spectator also show Jones criticising colleagues in the Cabinet – namely Chancellor Rachel Reeves, then-deputy PM Angela Rayner and then-business secretary Jonathan Reynolds.
Jones, who was Reeves's deputy until last September, told Mandelson that it did not "fill you with confidence" that Reynolds, Rayner and Reeves were in charge of the UK Government's growth plans.
He also reportedly told Mandelson that he had "lost faith" in Reynolds' advisers "when, on a call about Port Talbot, they repeatedly took a different position to us in HMT [the Treasury] 'because that's what the unions want'."
The Spectator also reports that Jones sought "thoughts/advice" from Mandelson about a proposed Cabinet reshuffle, saying that he hoped to be appointed business secretary, technology secretary or energy secretary.
He wrote: "DBT [Department for Business and Trade] my preference – everyone fond of Jonny but perception that DBT not firing on full cylinders."
On the Thursday morning media round, Labour minister Lucy Rigby, chief secretary to the Treasury, was asked about whether the messages between Jones and Mandelson were acceptable.
She told Times Radio: That is a question you would need to put to Darren, frankly.
“I wouldn’t have used those words.”
She also responded to Jones's comments about Reeves, Reynolds and Rayner, adding: “There is an extent to which, and I think we all do need to bear this in mind, frankly, who hasn’t come out of a work meeting at some point and sent a message to a colleague or a family member or whatever, sort of, you know, letting off steam, letting off a bit of frustration.
“You know, you may well choose to exaggerate, or whatever, for effect. You know, we’ve all done that, frankly. I don’t think it’s necessarily right to over-index on some of these messages.”
