Government unsure if deleted Mandelson messages can be recovered

Messages concerning Lord Peter Mandelson’s potential appointment as ambassador to the US may have been permanently lost due to a commonly used “disappearing messages” setting on WhatsApp, the Government has indicated.

Cabinet Office minister Chris Ward said that he did not know whether these crucial communications could have been recovered if they were automatically deleted by the feature.

He was pressed on the matter by Reform UK’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, who questioned the recoverability of messages routinely erased by the app.

The disappearing messages feature is frequently used by MPs and officials, partly to prevent older communications from being leaked.

Users have the option to set messages to be deleted every 24 hours, seven days, or 90 days.

The revelation emerges just over a week after the Government voted to publish all material relating to Lord Mandelson’s 2024 appointment amid a furore over his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

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Information deemed sensitive to national security and foreign relations will undergo vetting by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC).

Mr Tice said: “Can he confirm the position with regard to disappearing WhatsApp messages and deleted messages? Can they technically be retrieved from the system in order to be given to the Intelligence and Security Committee?”

Mr Ward replied: “He raises a very interesting question, I’m afraid I really don’t know the answer to it, but I imagine it’s one that a lot of people are considering, but I will come back to him.”

The issue of disappearing messages arose during the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, where a senior civil servant who worked with Boris Johnson was found to have turned on the function a month before the Covid inquiry was announced.

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The Scottish National Party government, which was in charge in Holyrood during the pandemic, also faced accusations that senior ministers had turned on the setting.

Mr Ward told MPs in the Commons on Thursday that the Government hoped to publish the first tranche of messages when Parliament returns from recess on 28 February.

In response to questions from Conservative shadow cabinet office minister Alex Burghart, Mr Ward said the Government was still assessing how much material there was.

He said: “There is obviously a large amount of material potentially in play here … that’s not a criticism, that’s just a factual observation of how long it’s going to take to get through this. So scoping has begun.”

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Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said the ISC should not be stopped from seeing material because of the ongoing investigation by the Metropolitan Police into misconduct in public office by Lord Mandelson.

Sir Lindsay said as the committee sits in private it should be sent information that still may be relevant to the police. Mr Ward had said the Government is liaising with police as the investigation continues.

Sir Lindsay said: “The intelligence committee is private and independent and therefore I wouldn’t like to see that they were blocked from information because it would not affect any police investigation, because that information would go into the public arena.”

Mr Burghart questioned Mr Ward on whether any replacement of Sir Chris Wormald as Cabinet Secretary would affect disclosure of documents.

He also asked about Government’s contract with Palantir and whether the Government will publish all documents about the appointment of former head of communications Lord Matthew Doyle as a peer.

Lord Doyle has apologised for campaigning for paedophile councillor Sean Morton in 2017 after the latter had been charged with having indecent images of children. Questions have been raised over the vetting behind his peerage.

Mr Ward said he would write to Mr Burghart on Palantir. However he said the question about Lord Doyle, who had the Labour whip removed from him on Tuesday, was not in scope of the question in Parliament.

He said: “The Government continues to take this matter incredibly seriously, and given the nature of the issues at stake and the scope of material in play, we will comply fully and deliver this as quickly and transparently as possible.”