Swansea MP criticised over text exchanges with Mandelson

Martin Shipton

Pensions Minister and Swansea West Labour MP Torsten Bell has been criticised for cosying up to Peter Mandelson and agreeing with him that the Labour UK Government doesn’t do policy “well enough”.

Lord Mandelson is under police investigation for allegedly leaking sensitive UK government information to the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Last year he was sacked by Keir Starmer as the UK Ambassador to the US.

In a text message exchange between the two men dating from July 2025 and released as part of a document disclosure relating to Mandelson’s appointment as UK Ambassador to the United States, Bell tells Mandelson: “I’m fine – pensions ministering is a safe politically gig, and an interesting one policy wise. Then just help Rachel [Reeves] and Keir ]Starmer] out when asked on the side.”

Bell added: “Obviously the big picture is … messy.”

Two days later Mandelson sent Bell a message that said: “It should do. No problems foreseen at present. It’s messy because the government doesn’t do policy, generally speaking, well enough. It all starts with policy.”

Bell asked: “Which govt”, adding: “Will I get to see you on this trip or too much just flying in and out around the SV [security vetting] itself?

Mandelson: Our government!

Bell: Well that is definitely true – everyone seems to think it’s someone else’s job to get the policy right … which is very odd.

Mandelson: As the saying goes, rubbish in rubbish out.

Guardian columnist Jon Crace wrote after the exchange was published: “There’s no sense of gratitude for the prime minister having taken a punt on him for the Washington job. For Peter that was no more than he had rightly deserved. The culmination of a lifetime’s brown-nosing the rich, the corrupt and the powerful. So Mandelson happily trash talks Keir to anyone willing to listen. ‘Rubbish in, rubbish out.’ He doesn’t even bother to conceal what he’s doing. He’s never happier than when he’s promoting discontent and division. Turns out he hates Labour every bit as much as the Tories do. There again, so it seems do half the cabinet.

“And what does Mandy get in return for his disloyalty? Just about everything he’s always wanted. Not least the sycophancy. New pensions minister Torsten Bell can’t contain his fan-boy excitement. Can hardly believe he has been admitted as one of Mandelson’s courtiers. ‘You’re amazing,’ he simpers. It’s all he can do not to ask for a signed photograph. And as always with Peter there is the deception. Asked to list any current people of interest with whom he has associated, he declines to list Epstein. Because technically speaking Epstein is not current. He is dead.”

Torsten Bell was hurriedly gifted Swansea West when Rishi Sunak called a general election for July 2024 at a time when the sitting Labour MP Geraint Davies was suspended from the party.

At the time Estelle Hart, a party activist and the daughter of former Welsh Government Economy Minister Edwina Hart, posted a message to X that summed up the frustration of some local Labour members: “If what I’m hearing about Swansea West and the imposition of a candidate whose connection to Wales, let alone Swansea, seems to be ‘I can point to it on a map’, the party can actually fuck off for this election.”

‘Casual manner’

A Labour source said: “The few times I’ve met Torsten he has seemed nice but that’s not the point. The casual manner he as a government minister interacted with Mandelson who had been a senior lobbyist for powerful vested interests is bad.

“Kitty Donaldson of The i Paper revealed that Lord Peter Mandelson was given access to a secret Google spreadsheet by Morgan McSweeney’s allies to vet prospective Labour parliamentary candidates ahead of the 2024 general election. It seems Torsten was a particular favourite of this faction and was rewarded with a Swansea seat he had no connection to.

“This is the problem: the Labour Party was used and abused by this Mandelson McSweeney faction to reward themselves – Mandelson with the Ambassador role and Torsten with a seat in Swansea.

“Last month’s election results have to be a line in the sand and all that sort of thing has to stop. Never again should London Labour pick Welsh candidates and never again should Wales be treated like this. Like many members I hope that Andy Burnham sees all this and cleans up Labour.”

Torsten Bell was invited to comment.