Labour not looking to raise taxes to fund benefits, minister says after WhatsApp messages revealed

Asked about the culture in the parliamentary party of demanding more spending on benefits, Thomas-Symonds said it was “not my experience, obviously Pat is talking there about meetings he’s been in. It’s not my experience.”

He added: “I don’t accept that Labour MPs, all of us together, are not determined to tackle the scourge of youth unemployment … in that work we are absolutely united as a parliamentary party.”

He said that the welfare bill was also rising because of the increase in the state pension and the government’s commitment to the triple lock. “I am proud that we are doing that, looking after pensioners up and down the country,” Thomas-Symonds said.

The cabinet minister said he was not surprised to see so many congratulatory messages to Mandelson – who was sacked after revelations about his closeness with the late child sex offender Jeffery Epstein. He said he had been unaware about the extent of their friendship until files had been released by the US Department of Justice last year.

“I had no idea about the depth and the darkness of the relationship between Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein,” he said. “I was shocked, absolutely shocked, last September when that came to light.”

Thomas-Symonds said there were messages on his stolen phone congratulating Mandelson on his appointment. “I lost significant amounts of data, not just WhatsApp, but personal photographs as well. This was my personal phone,” he said, adding there were messages “congratulations about my appointment, [Mandelson’s] subsequent appointment. There would have been an exchange when he was campaigning to be the chancellor of the University of Oxford. So I’ve always been someone in favour of transparency.”