Angela Rayner was at the helm of a Labour revolt against Sir Keir Starmer over the release of the Mandelson files in the Epstein scandal.
The former Deputy Prime Minister piled pressure on Sir Keir to allow Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) to oversee which documents should be kept back from public release on national security and international relations grounds.
She stressed that this could help to maintain “public confidence” in the scrutiny process amid warnings of a “cover-up”.
Within hours, Downing Street had caved in to the threat of a Labour rebellion and the ISC was being given a role in the release of the Mandelson files.
The row erupted after Sir Keir, at Prime Minister’s Questions, had accused Lord Mandelson of leaking market-sensitive information to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein when he was Business Secretary in Gordon Brown’s Government between 2009 and 2010.
The PM slammed the disgraced peer as having “betrayed Britain” and revealed that the King had axed him from the Privy Council.
But Sir Keir was under spiralling pressure over his decision to appoint Lord Mandelson as UK ambassador in America after the Met Police launched a criminal investigation into allegations that he committed misconduct in public office.
The Conservatives used a Commons “humble address” motion to demand the release of “all papers relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment” as Britain’s ambassador in Washington, though it made no mention of the ISC.
These papers could include documents about Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein, alongside vetting material.
The Government tabled an amendment to withhold some “papers prejudicial to UK national security or international relations”.
Sir Keir promised a documents disclosure process led by Cabinet Secretary Sir Chris Wormald, supported by Government lawyers.
But Ms Rayner, who was Sir Keir’s Deputy Prime Minister until September last year, pointed to a previous disclosure motion she tabled in 2022.
In it, she said the Commons Public Accounts Committee should look at papers related to personal protective equipment (PPE) contracts.
On the Mandelson files, Ms Rayner asked: “Should we not have the ISC not have the same role now in keeping public confidence in the process?”
With other Labour MPs calling for this move, Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds responded: “I’m hearing what the House is saying and I will take that point away.”
Ms Rayner’s intervention came as Sir Keir is scrambling to limit the damage to his Government from the Mandelson scandal, amid warnings that he could face a leadership challenge if Labour does as badly as MPs fear at the May local elections, and for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly.
Dame Meg Hillier, Labour MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch who leads the influential Commons Liaison Committee, also pressed the minister to use “well worn filters through Parliament,” and its committees, to “properly and sensitively handle” how the Mandelson papers are released.
Clive Efford, Labour MP for Eltham and Chislehurst, criticised the Government’s stance.
“Across the House there is a consensus growing that the Intelligence and Security Committee could provide a way forward for independent scrutiny of those documents,” he added.
Mr Efford asked about the “possibility” of a manuscript amendment, a last-minute proposal which could be tabled while the debate is taking place to give the ISC a role.
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle replied he “would be sympathetic to what the House would need to ensure that we get the best”.
In an apparent sign of a looming climbdown by the Government, Mr Thomas-Symonds said: “I hope, Mr Speaker, that the House always takes me at my word when I say that I will take these matters away.”
Later, it was announced that MPs and peers on the ISC would decide what documents are held back from being released.
Earlier, Leftwinger John McDonnell, MP for Hayes and Harlington, said he would rebel against the Government’s amendment over restricting the release of papers which were ‘prejudicial to international relations’.
“This is so wide that it opens up the Prime Minister to allegations of collusion in a cover-up,” he warned.
Opening the Commons debate, Conservative shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart said: “Peter Mandelson, it seems, helped Jeffrey Epstein and his associates make money, and that money was used to run his paedophilic prostitution ring.”
He described a “heady game of who had the best contacts and who could make the most money, played by a small set of men who took their thrill from existing outside of the rules”.
