Getty Images and PAFormer Downing Street chief of staff Morgan McSweeney (left) and former US ambassador Lord MandelsonThe prime minister has said it is "a little bit far-fetched" to believe his former chief-of-staff Morgan McSweeney could have faked the theft of his phone.
Messages relating to Lord Mandelson's appointment as British ambassador to the US could be lost as a result of the alleged theft in October last year.
The phone would have been included in the imminent disclosure of all messages connected to that decision, which McSweeney pushed for despite concerns about Lord Mandelson's links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has suggested the theft was an "excuse" and Labour MP Karl Turner has said he does not believe the phone was stolen.
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On Wednesday, the Met took the unusual step of publishing the full transcript of the call McSweeney made on 20 October last year to report his work phone had been snatched from his hand by a young man riding a bike as he walked down the street.
Speaking to journalists in Finland, where he is attending a security summit, Sir Keir Starmer speculation McSweeney's account could be untrue and the government was involved in a cover-up was wrong.
Asked if he understood why some people were suspicious about the incident, the prime minister said: "Unfortunately there are thefts like this.
"It was stolen. It was reported at the time, the police have acknowledged and confirmed that. That is what happened.
"The idea that somehow everybody could have seen that some time in the future there'd be a request for the phone is, to my mind, a little bit far-fetched."
At PMQs on Wednesday, Badenoch said: "I wonder what a director of public prosecutions would make of the defence, 'sorry, I can't produce my WhatsApps, my phone's been stolen'."
Sir Keir was the director of public prosecutions before he started his political career.
Speaking after PMQs, Badenoch's official spokesman continued to contest McSweeney's reported theft.
"From the very outset of the Mandelson affair, the prime minister's first instinct has been to obfuscate and cover up," he told reporters.
The spokesman would not go as far as to suggest McSweeney was lying about his phone being stolen, but said: "I think what Kemi would say is, it's very fortunate timing."
Badenoch has called for McSweeney to give evidence to Parliament about the theft, saying there were "too many unanswered questions".
She said: "If No 10 are incapable of recovering these messages, it is only right that Morgan McSweeney testifies in Parliament and explains exactly what happened and why Keir Starmer signed off on Peter Mandelson's appointment despite the warnings."
Later that evening, Labour backbencher Karl Turner posted on X: "I don't believe McSwindle had his iPhone stolen."
The government has promised to comply with a demand from MPs to publish all messages relating to the appointment of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador, who was appointed despite his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The first set of internal government documents, which reveal the PM was warned about the risk of appointing Lord Mandelson, were released earlier this month.
Messages from ministers and government aides are expected to be included in the second release, raising questions about whether information held on McSweeney's stolen phone would be accessible.
The Cabinet Office is understood to have some of the messages between Mr McSweeney and Lord Mandelson in its possession.
Former deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara has criticised Downing Street for apparently not flagging McSweeney's phone theft to the police as a security risk.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme McSweeney "did the right thing" in quickly contacting Downing Street to report the phone stolen and asking them to wipe it.
But she said there were "questions to ask and answer about just how fast the government were" in responding to that, because it was "their phone, their data, their risk" and, in her experience, security steps like this were not fast enough.
She said: "It's surprising to me that Downing Street didn't then get in touch with the Met to flag that this was a significant thing.
"Maybe they did, maybe we'll find that out later -- but it's definitely true that, in this day and age in particular, we need to be really careful about government material on phones and take all kinds of precautions, so I would hope that that's what the system did."
MacNamara also called for speedier release of the second batch of documents relating Mandelson's appointment to put an end to speculation, arguing the information vacuum is allowing "paranoia and suspicion" and "people are imaging all sorts of amazing things that he [McSweeney] can do".
"Trust in politics and government does really matter," she said. "It's better to get it out there."
The timeline for a complex series of events is as follows:
2024
- 19 December Lord Mandelson is announced as US ambassador
2025
- 8 September US lawmakers release an alleged "birthday book" in which Lord Mandelson called the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein his "best pal"
- 10 September Sir Keir Starmer says he has full confidence in Mandelson at PMQs as Kemi Badenoch calls for documents on his business interests to be published
- 11 September Keir Starmer sacks Lord Mandelson as US ambassador
- 12 September 2025 Shadow minister Alex Burghart tells the BBC the Conservatives will force a vote in parliament on releasing documents relating to Mandelson's appointment
- 20 October McSweeney reports his phone as stolen to the police
2026
- 30 January US Department of Justice release three million pages from Epstein files, including many references to Lord Mandelson
- 1 February Lord Mandelson resigns from Labour Party over Epstein links
- 3 February Police launch investigation into Lord Mandelson over claims he leaked information to Epstein
- 4 February MPs back plan to release Mandelson files after Labour anger forces climbdown
- 8 February McSweeney quits as Sir Keir Starmer's chief of staff
- 23 February Lord Mandelson is arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office
- 11 March First batch of documents relating to Mandelson's appointment as ambassador released by government
- 25 March Police defend their handling of the case and release a transcript of McSweeney's 999 call reporting the theft
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