What’s in Wes Streeting’s WhatsApp messages to Peter Mandelson?
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has released months of messages that were sent between him and former ambassador to the US Lord Peter Mandelson.
The bold move is intended to stem speculation about how close he was with the disgraced ex-peer.
Last week, the government promised to release a large tranche of files surrounding the appointment of Mandelson as ambassador at the end of 2024.
They include all the messages between Mandelson and government ministers (as well as Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, who resigned on Sunday) for a period before and after the decision was made.
The Prime Minister has said the release will shed light on the process and show how the Labour grandee lied repeatedly to him and his team about the extent of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
In the aftermath of the announcement, rumours circulated around Westminster that the messages would expose Streeting’s close and now politically damaging links with Mandelson.
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So the health secretary – widely believed to have leadership ambitions if Keir Starmer is forced to step down – moved preemptively and shared his Whatsapp and text messages with Sky News.
His decision has fuelled speculation that moves against the PM could be on the horizon, particularly after accusations (denied by his team) that he has encouraged Anas Sarwar’s dramatic intervention yesterday.
Why did Wes Streeting release his messages with Mandelson?
Metro‘s Senior Political Reporter Craig Munro looks at the logic behind the move.
On the face of it, this might seem like a strange decision for Wes Streeting to make.
For good reason, most of Westminster is trying to put as much distance between themselves and Peter Mandelson as possible.
But there was clear method to the ostensible madness.
The first point is that these messages were going to be released anyway, since they fall under the parameters of what the government has committed to publish.
They’re not going to be released particularly soon, though, as the Metropolitan Police is concerned the files could compromise their investigation into Lord Mandelson.
That fact is likely to have troubled Streeting, who wants to stop that rumour mill from spinning as soon as possible.
If we’re being very generous, we could say the timing also helped to draw a little attention away from Keir Starmer’s fight to keep his job.
However, this move is being read – as with everything else to do with Wes Streeting – in the context of the health secretary’s supposed ambitions to take over at No 10.
It could be seen as a demonstration to Labour MPs that Streeting is a bold and decisive politician who is willing to put himself in the firing line and argue his position.
And much of the focus in Westminster has been on just how politically convenient many of the messages are.
There’s the strong position on Israel that might help win over voters in his own constituency, and the frustration over government strategy that’s shared by many of his party’s other MPs.
Regardless, it looks like others won’t be able to follow his lead – the Sun is reporting that other ministers have been banned from releasing their own messages with Mandelson ahead of the files release.
What is in Wes Streeting’s Mandelson messages?
According to the messages released to Sky News, texts were exchanged between Streeting and Peter Mandelson on 20 days between August 30 2024 and October 30 2025.
He told the news channel: ‘You would think from some of the things we’ve read over the weekend that I was having dinner with him every week, sought his advice on everything and anything.’
But the health secretary said: ‘I’ve got nothing to hide.’
The messages show the pair would occasionally exchange links to news articles and discuss work offers like a debate at Oxford University.
There is some politically awkward content in the chat history, though. On March 23 last year, Streeting agreed with Mandelson’s assertion that the ‘government problems do not stem from comms.’
Translation: both believe the many challenges faced by the government stem from the choices it made, not how they’re being sold to the public.
Streeting continues: ‘I fear we’re in big trouble here – and I am toast at the next election. We just lost our safest ward in Redbridge (51% Muslim, Ilford S) to a Gaza independent. At this rate I don’t think we’ll hold either of the two Ilford seats.
‘There isn’t a clear answer to the question: why Labour?’
When Mandelson says the government lacks an ‘economic philosophy which is then followed through in a programme of policies’, Streeting replies: ‘No growth strategy at all.’
Perhaps most significant, though, are the exchanges surrounding the UK’s recognition of the state of Palestine from July last year.
Streeting says Israel ‘is committing war crimes before our eyes’ – a line not used in public by any senior government figure.
He continues: ‘Their government talks the language of ethnic cleansing and I have met with our own medics out there who describe the most chilling and distressing scenes of calculated brutality against women and children.’
Mandelson responds with concerns that recognition could ‘blow’ the two-state solution ‘out of the water’.
Later, the health secretary adds: ‘This is rogue state behaviour. Let them pay the price as pariahs with sanctions applied to the state, not just a few ministers.’
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