A TOP Labour minister has been pulled up after claims he had not sent Peter Mandelson a “warm message” when he was sacked were thrown into doubt.
Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, reportedly told the disgraced former ambassador: “You've been doing such a great job, and you worked wonders with Trump. I'm so sorry about today.”
But he had previously denied sending Mandelson warm words when he was fired over his friendship with Epstein was laid bare.
BBC presenter Laura Kuenssberg shared a link of an article about his messages to Mandelson with a video of her interview with Jones some weeks before when she had asked about emerging reports about their correspondence.
Missing Mandelson messages from minister Darren Jones revealed https://t.co/QbJ3vu1mEZ - this is what he said to us about those ‘warm messages’ a few weeks ago 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/T9mhoG0oCx
— Laura Kuenssberg (@bbclaurak) June 4, 2026
In the clip, Kuenssberg asked: “Did you send Peter Mandelson what was described as a ‘warm message’ on the day that he was sacked as has been reported?”
Jones replied: “No. I was asked what was going on in Downing Street [by Mandelson].
“This was the week that I had just arrived as Chief Secretary, I don’t think I even had an office at the time, and I replied, along the lines of, ‘I don’t know what’s happening, I’m not in the room, I’m sorry it all seems so difficult.’”
She said: “You wouldn’t describe what you said as a warm message?”
Jones said: “I wouldn’t say it was warm and I didn’t know what was taking place, I just felt that it was difficult at the time for everybody involved.”
Social media users accused Jones of lying.
Responding to Kuenssberg’s tweet, Daily Mail pundit Dan Hodges wrote: “OK, know there’s a lot going on. But Darren Jones straight up lied. How is this not a resigning issue.”
William Coulston, leader of the Social Democratic Party added: “Flagrant deceit. Resign.”
Jones is the minister responsible for the release of the so-called Mandelson files relating to the doomed ambassadorial appointment.
During a statement to the Commons earlier this week on the release of the latest tranche of messages – which did not include his embarrassing exchange with Mandelson – Jones apologised for treating “Peter Mandelson differently because I believed him to have influence and power within the Labour Party”.
