The next tranche of papers on Lord Mandelson’s ambassador appointment will not be published this month, Darren Jones told MPs.
The second batch of documents relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment as the UK’s ambassador to the United States will not be published this month, a cabinet minister has told MPs.
Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, said the papers would be released after Parliament’s upcoming recess to give MPs “sufficient time to review the material”. Parliament is due to rise at the end of this week and return on Monday 1 June.
The update came after the Intelligence and Security Committee, which has been reviewing sensitive material, said some files were being withheld and some information was being redacted on grounds not previously set out. Jones rejected Conservative claims of a cover-up and said ministers had followed the “normal approach” to redacting documents.
Lord Mandelson was dismissed as ambassador last year after new revelations emerged about the extent of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender. In February, MPs voted to force the government to publish papers connected to the appointment through a parliamentary procedure known as a humble address.
The government initially opposed the move, arguing that publication could risk national security or diplomatic relations. It later agreed to send sensitive documents first to the Intelligence and Security Committee, allowing the cross-party group to assess what should be withheld before publication. The first tranche of papers was published in March.
Lord Beamish, the committee’s chairman, said last week that the ISC had received 337 documents and had made decisions on all reductions requested by the government. He said it was then for ministers to publish the material within 28 sitting days of Parliament, while also raising concerns about additional redactions and withheld documents.
Sir Jeremy Wright, the ISC’s deputy chairman and a former Conservative minister, pressed the issue in the House of Commons through an urgent question. He said committee members had “sympathy with the substantive arguments the government may make for withholding information” but could not accept ministers ignoring or unilaterally changing the terms of the humble address.
Jones said he understood the concern to involve personal data collected during security vetting. Raw details such as a bank balance, he said, “would never be published”, warning that releasing such information could deter people from answering vetting questions honestly. He also said there was no public interest in publishing the names, contact details or phone numbers of junior officials.
Asked whether the documents would be published before the expected 18 June by-election in Makerfield, Jones said the government would need to secure time in the House. He said he was ready for publication once the government was prepared to proceed and had committed to doing so after the recess.
Lord Beamish later told BBC Radio 4’s World at One that the government still needed to explain why certain information linked to Mandelson’s security vetting could not be published. He said the committee agreed that releasing details of the vetting process could damage future vetting systems, adding: “There’s not a cover-up here, it’s just being transparent.”
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