Ministers still plan to release Mandelson files in March after peer’s arrest

Plans to release documents about Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador have not been disrupted by the peer’s arrest on Monday, a Cabinet minister said.

Bridget Phillipson signalled the Government still plans to release documents about Lord Mandelson’s appointment in early March, a move announced in the House of Commons on Monday just before the peer was arrested at his London home.

Lord Mandelson was released on bail in the early hours of Tuesday morning after his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

The former Labour minister has been accused of passing on information to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein when he was business secretary.

Asked whether the Government still planned to go ahead with its plans to publish documents amid the police investigation, Education Secretary Ms Phillipson told Sky News: “My understanding is yes, but we do just need to be mindful of any documents we publish given the nature of the ongoing police investigation.

“So, we want to be transparent, we do want to push ahead with publishing documents, but we just need to make sure that nothing that’s published could compromise or call into question an ongoing police investigation.”

Sir Keir Starmer has faced considerable criticism over his decision to appoint Lord Mandelson to the position despite his links to Epstein, with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar calling for him to resign.

The Prime Minister had admitted to knowing about Lord Mandelson’s ongoing friendship with Epstein, but said the peer “lied repeatedly” about the extent of the relationship when questioned on it.

Under pressure from Labour MPs and opposition parties, the Prime Minister agreed to release all the documents relating to the appointment.

The Liberal Democrats will use a parliamentary debate on Tuesday to compel ministers to similarly release documents about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s appointment as trade envoy.

The former prince served as trade envoy between 2001 and 2011, and also faces accusations of sharing sensitive information with Epstein while in the role.

He was arrested last week on suspicion of misconduct in public office, before being released under investigation.

Ms Phillipson would not reveal whether the Government will support the Lib Dem humble address motion, which will be debated in the Commons after midday.

“We’ll review what they are asking for and will set our approach later on in Parliament,” she said.

New Zealand has become the second Commonwealth realm to announce it would support the UK Government if it proposes to remove Andrew from the royal line of succession.

It followed a similar step by Australia on Monday.

The agreement of all 15 Commonwealth realms, including the UK, is required to remove Andrew from the line of succession. He is currently eighth in line to the throne.

Ms Phillipson told Sky the Government is “ruling nothing out and that is definitely an option that we would want to keep under consideration”, when asked about whether the step was being mooted.

Elsewhere, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that his party was calling for the release of documents relating to Andrew’s appointment as trade envoy because “we need to go right to the moment when he was appointed, and then we can answer the questions about how he conducted that role”.

Sir Ed also told the broadcaster he regretted praising Andrew while serving as a minister in the coalition Government.

Sir Ed added: “I’ve learned from that, I’m pretty angry to be honest that I was put in that position, and I think anyone who has had any comment to make on Prince Andrew as trade envoy over the years will be pretty angry that the trust that was put in him, the privileged position he had, he absolutely betrayed.”

The Commons Business and Trade Committee is also set to decide whether to open its own inquiry into Andrew’s years as trade envoy when it meets at 2.30pm on Tuesday.