Streeting led calls for PM to recognise Palestinian state, newly released Mandelson files show

Wes Streeting was at the forefront of pressure on Keir Starmer to announce UK recognition of a Palestinian state—even as the Prime Minister was described as “not attracted to gestures,” newly released files relating to the Mandelson crisis reveal.

The documents confirm that the former Health Secretary sought help from the now disgraced former UK ambassador Lord Peter Mandelson to pressure the PM ahead of the eventual decision to on recognition.

Streeting also circulated a video and a note to the entire cabinet as he urged the Prime Minister to recognise Palestine and impose further sanctions on Israel in response to the war in Gaza.

But the files also show Mandelson’s private reaction to Streeting’s campaign.

After receiving a lengthy email from Streeting about Israel, Mandelson messaged cabinet minister Pat McFadden, then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, describing Streeting’s message as a “long, hysterical message” and claiming it “reflects pretty badly on his maturity.”

Mandelson went further, writing: “It is pathetic,” and adding, “I think Wes is experiencing an early midlife crisis.”

McFadden replied to Mandelson regarding Streeting’s persistent advocacy on Israel-Palestine, saying, “He is very active on the MPs WhatsApp groups on this subject.”

The newly disclosed documents also shed light on government thinking in the months leading up to the eventual decision to recognise Palestine in September 2025. McFadden, who had described the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza, told Mandelson: “Keir not attracted to gestures but he might have no alternative.”

Mandelson, for his part, also dismissed recognition as a “gesture.”

Responding to Streeting’s email, he warned: “Such a gesture could blow a 2 SS [two-state solution] out of the water if Israel decided unilateral recognition justified further WB [West Bank] annexation which the US would be powerless to stop or reverse.”

Instead, Mandelson argued that “The PA with reform and new leadership” could move towards a peaceful resolution “with Arab/US/European support,” warning that the alternative was a “deadlocked death spiral.”

Streeting pushed back, stating: “Israel is doing it anyway.”

He acknowledged the efforts by Starmer and David Lammy but insisted Israel was behaving like a “rogue state” and argued: “We need to lead, not follow.”

A WhatsApp message from July 2025, previously published by Streeting, shows the then Health Secretary discussing recognition of a Palestinian state while emphasising his longstanding support for Labour Friends of Israel: “I’ve never been a shrinking violet on Israel,” he said.

Streeting told Mandelson, “Morally and politically, I think we need to join France.”

He elaborated: “Morally, because Israel is committing war crimes before our eyes. 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.

“Politically, a Commons vote will be engineered in September on recognition, and we will lose it if we’re not ahead of it. There are no circumstances in which people like me or Shabana [Mahmood] could abstain or vote against, for example. Conference will be a sea of Palestinian flags and the moderates will be waving them.

“We need to be leading the charge on this. The alternative is being dragged there with enormous damage to Keir, the govt and the party.”

Streeting had told Mandelson  he was concerned that he could lose his own Ilford North parliamentary seat at the next general election.

“I fear we’re in big trouble here – and I am toast at the next election,” he wrote.

“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,” he said.

But Mandelson said in his role “I don’t make government policy I only help implement.”

He told Streeting his views on the issue were “between us.”

Streeting voluntarily published just over a year of his communications with Mandelson, covering August 2024 to October 2025, telling Sky News he had “nothing to hide.”

The files also suggest that Tony Blair was involved in discussions on the issue.

On 24 July, Mandelson asked McFadden whether he had spoken to “TB,” now believed to be Tony Blair, about Gaza. McFadden replied: “I have. I spoke to him the other day. He is focused on long-term future—Arab countries, reform of PA [Palestinian Authority], [redacted].” Mandelson then responded: “If we are not careful we won’t get anywhere near that future.

“I first wrote an article about 2 SS [two-state solution] in 1975 after returning from a six-week visit to Israel and Arab countries. Carter advanced it but sabotaged by Begin. Bush 1 advanced through Madrid talks and threatened to end loan guarantees to Israel. PLO [Palestinian Liberation Organisation] rescued Israel from the agreement and did so again when Clinton got agreement with Rabin.”

The files also included a note to Lammy about the potential ambassador posting in November 2024, which Mandelson appears to have written as he waited to hear whether he would be made the next chancellor of Oxford University.

In the letter, written in blue pen on notepaper headed with Lord Mandelson’s name and a House of Lords seal, he said he wanted to “drop you a line, personally, about Washington”.

“Thankfully, the media speculation has gone away and I hope this was not too irritating to you. I just wanted you to know that if you were minded to appoint me I would make sure you never regret it.”

In the Commons on Monday, Dame Emily Thornberry raised questions about the Mandelson files, specifically the lack of evidence for any mitigations put in place before Mandelson’s ambassadorial appointment. The Foreign Affairs Committee chair asked: “Is it right that among the 1,500 pages of documents released today there is no written evidence of any mitigations being put in place either to minimise Peter Mandelson’s conflicts of interest?

“Or, more importantly, to reduce the risks to our national security that vetting had flagged due to his close connections with Russian oligarchs, senior Chinese officials, retired Israeli spymasters and a debt of £1m to buy shares in a secretive Israeli start-up?

“Can the Chief Secretary tell us are we going to see such documents later because the police have got them, or do they just not exist at all?”

Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, replied: “Without inadvertently being able to name specific documents, I’m afraid the best I can say to her today in relation to those potential conflicts of interest is … that nature of document has been made relevant from the Metropolitan Police’s perspective in terms of their criminal investigation.”

The release of the Mandelson files has cost the Cabinet Office more than £1m, Jones confirmed.

The most damning revelation appeared to McFadden’s attack on  the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) in response to Mandelson saying that backbenchers appeared to be in a “mutinous state” in July 2025.

McFadden responded: “Yes. Every meeting I have is “who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others”. They’re asking the wrong questions.”

Mandelson also accused Gordon Brown of using Angela Rayner as an “instrument of destabilisation”.

He said the former Labour prime minister “had it in” for Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves “big time”.

The peer wrote: “I have spoken to Morgan (McSweeney) a lot this week and last night I was direct with him – Keir is not leading from the front and Morgan is not organising the centre as it needs to be Gordon has it in for Keir (and Rachel) big time.

“He doesn’t seriously believe that Angela is an alternative but she is an instrument of destabilisation. I doubt he thinks Ed is fit for purpose but he is doing to Keir what he has always done to successive Scottish leaders.”

In the Commons, Conservative frontbencher Alex Burghart said any attempt to withhold or redact more documents than those requested by police “will be viewed by the House as a contempt of Parliament, and as a cover-up by the British public.”

Starmer had fired Mandelson in September 2025 following new revealtions about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein after the financier’s 2008 conviction for sexual offences involving a minor.

Critics say Starmer’s decision to appoint Mandelson is evidence of his bad judgment.