MPs raise doubts over missing Mandelson vetting documents

Ministers have faced renewed cross-party pressure in parliament over documents missing from a 1,500-page release of papers about Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to Washington.

Despite the volume of information published on Monday, crucial documents were withheld at the request of the Metropolitan police on the grounds that they could “potentially prejudice” an investigation. They include a document summarising the vetting process, which concluded with officials recommending Mandelson not be given security clearance.

Ministers said they were not able to reveal when the police decided the vetting summary was relevant to their investigation. The document had been reviewed and redacted by members of parliament’s intelligence and security committee.

In a general debate on the government’s publication of the documents, MPs expressed surprise at the absence of any documents detailing security mitigations that would have been necessary to address concerns identified by vetting officials, whose recommendation was overruled by the Foreign Office.

Sources told the Guardian that the vetting summary contained concerns about Mandelson’s links to China’s minister of finance, Lan Fo’an, the sanctions-hit Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, and a former Israeli military intelligence general, Tamir Hayman.

Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said she had expected to see records of the mitigations to address those risks.

She said: “How do we bridge that gap? The only way that gap is bridged is by mitigations. And so, I spend my time looking for mitigations. And I can’t find any.”

Thornberry said there was no sign of an “aide memoire” drafted by the Foreign Office security chief, Ian Collard, when he reviewed the vetting file last September 2025 after Mandelson was sacked.

Documents show that the Foreign Office security team requested access to the vetting file four days after Collard sent an outline of the vetting process to Downing Street. He did not say that vetting officials had recommended against giving clearance.

Emily Thornberry, chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said she had expected to see evidence of risk mitigation in the Mandelson files. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA