Westminster insiders have revealed what it’s like to be at the heart of government on the eve of the publication of an explosive dossier, after the first tranche of documents related to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador was released on Wednesday,
Former deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara and former special adviser to Boris Johnson, Cleo Watson, hostThe Independent’s weekly political podcast In the Room, drawing on their time in government to reveal how decisions are made.
In this week’s upcoming episode, released at midday on Friday 12 March, they discuss the first release of documents relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment, months after the former Labour peer was forced to step down from the role when the full extent of his relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein was revealed.
The dossier, which shows that the prime minister was issued with clear warnings over Mandelson’s links with Epstein, came after MPs ordered the government last month to release tens of thousands of documents relating to the 2024 appointment following questions over how the peer was vetted.
Asked what happens in government in the lead up to the publication of such a dossier, Ms MacNamara told The Independent: “Usually at the beginning, what you do is you send a message around to everybody who's included in this to say, by the way lads, you'd have seen this. Do not delete anything.
“So it's too late. You should have done it yesterday.
“So as soon as you've got [to the point where] we need to publish all information held, the point at which that is actually lawful is the point at which this has been passed. If you didn't delete it before this time, sure as hell shouldn't be deleting it now.”
In a time such as that, when communications could be made public or scrutinised as part of a review, Ms MacNamara said the mood among those working in Whitehall and Downing Street would be “grim”.
“You wouldn't have people panicking externally”, she said. “You would have people starting to worry.
“You have people looking back at their own [communications].
“So the first thing you really do, if you think you might not have covered yourself in glory, the first thing you do is ‘control f’ [search] your own stuff that you've got access to.
“You try and identify for yourself how much trouble I am personally going to be in, because that helps you to work out how calibrated you should be in your response.
According to Ms MacNamara and Ms Watson, people would check key dates and details of involved parties “frantically” to see if they are personally caught up in it.
Ms Watson said: “You can go through your own WhatsApps. The feeling when there'd be a leak inquiry, say, and you'd get a message saying there has been a leak to such and such journalist, and you think, I literally don't know that person. I don't have a contact on my phone. Thank God.”
And for their responses to these various situations, Ms MacNamara said: “If you know that you're totally in the clear, then you quite often say, ‘oh this looks terrible’. If you're not in the clear, you say something like ‘this is just disproportionate’.”
“Dare I say, if you're really not in the clear, you resign from government, which is obviously what quite a few of the spads [special advisers] have done”, Ms Watson added.
In The Room is straight-talking, insider analysis with a dose of humour, every Friday. This podcast is part of The Independent Podcast Network and is produced in association with Next Chapter Studios.
Mandelson files unpacked: What was actually in the 147-page release?
Beatrice and Eugenie ‘still have houses in Royal Palaces’
Fujitsu ‘yet to contribute a penny’ to Post Office Horizon victims
UK will not follow Trump’s decision to ease Russia sanctions, minister says
Churchill’s granddaughter breaks silence after his portrait replaced on £5 note
