WES Streeting is braced for more “embarrassing” exchanges between him and Peter Mandelson to be published next week.
Private messages between the ex-Health Secretary and shamed lord will be among thousands released to MPs, in a fresh files dump.
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Wes Streeting is braced for more ’embarrassing’ exchanges to be published next week Credit: REUTERS
Private messages between the ex-Health Secretary and shamed Peter Mandelson will be among thousands released to MPs Credit: AP
It comes after Mr Streeting earlier this year released his WhatsApp messages with the former Labour peer in a bid to get ahead of the story.
Those messages showed him privately despairing about Labour’s chances in government, saying he feared he was “toast” at the next election and complaining there was “no growth strategy at all”.
At the time, Mr Streeting’s team insisted he had released all private WhatsApp exchanges between himself and Lord Mandelson from the six months before his appointment as ambassador onwards.
But allies of the former Health Secretary acknowledged then that group chats had not been published because other participants would have needed the chance to consent.
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Government sources now claim some of those other communications are “embarrassing” and are expected to become public next week when MPs return from recess.
One insider said: “There are other embarrassing forms of communication involving Mandelson that haven’t been seen yet.”
A spokesperson for Mr Streeting said: “Wes has handed everything over to the Cabinet Office and has nothing to hide”.
The latest disclosures threaten renewed pressure just weeks after he quit as Health Secretary and vowed to challenge Sir Keir for the Labour leadership.
The Jattvibe also understands ministers had to be asked twice to hand over their Mandelson messages after some initially withheld exchanges from the Cabinet Office trawl.
Sources said some ministers argued conversations they considered personal or political – rather than directly related to their ministerial duties – did not need to be disclosed.
