𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Wes Streeting replies with an emphatic ‘no’ when asked if he’s still friends with Peter Mandelson.

The Health Secretary, who has historically been very close with the Labour grandee, says: “Whether or not his behaviour has hit a criminal threshold is for the police to decide.

“But what we’ve seen in recent days in regards to the leaking of highly confidential, highly sensitive, potentially market-sensisitive information is so jaw-droppingly stupid and outrageous that I don’t need a copy of the ministerial code in front of me – or a copy of the law of the law – to know that what he did could not have been done with any reasonable explanation or justification.

“What we have seen -not just in the release of this set of Epstein files, but in the previous release – is evidence there in black and white of a gross betrayal of two Prime Ministers, of our country’s national interest, of Epstein’s victims – those women and girls who were not believed as they campaigned for justice – and it’s a betrayal of our values.

He adds Peter Mandelson “was not the person we thought he was”.