Mandelson papers being withheld, says intelligence watchdog

Some documents relating to Lord Mandelson's appointment as the UK's ambassador to the US are being "withheld" from MPs, the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has said.

Lord Beamish, chair of the committee tasked with reviewing the documents, said Lord Mandelson's vetting file was one example of a document that had been kept back.

He said the government may have good reasons to withhold some material but did not have the authority to do so and ministers should seek MPs' approval to retain certain pieces of information.

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said the government was "working to publish as much material as we can as soon as possible".

Conservative shadow minister Alex Burghart said: "It is outrageous that Labour are trying to withhold documents about the Mandelson-Epstein affair from Parliament."

He accused the government of trying "to pull the wool over the public and Parliament's eyes".

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: "This thing reeks. Why is the government trying to cover up, again, the scale of the Mandelson mess? What could be worse than what we've already seen?"

In February, MPs voted to force the government to publish all papers relating to the appointment through a parliamentary process called a humble address.

The government initially opposed the motion arguing that it did not want to publish material that could damage national security or diplomatic relations.

However, in a last-minute compromise it agreed to first send sensitive documents to the Intelligence and Security Committee, who would decide what could and could not be published.

The first tranche of documents was published in March.

In his statement, Lord Beamish said the committee has reached a decision on all the redactions requested by government in the 337 documents referred to it, and that it is now for the government to publish the documents within 28 sitting days.

However, he listed a number of concerns about how the government had responded to the humble address.

"The committee has been told that certain documents are being withheld from the process," he said, adding: "The prime example is a vetting file held by UK Security Vetting (UKSV)."

Last month, it was revealed that UKSV had recommended against clearing Lord Mandelson for the job, but the Foreign Office had nevertheless given him clearance.

Lord Beamish also said the government was redacting documents "too broadly - particularly in the case of personal information".

He said "no body has been commissioned to review those redactions and assure Parliament that they are within the spirit of the humble address".