Lord Mandelson's appointment as US ambassador was "weirdly rushed", a senior adviser to the Prime Minister said. A dossier of documents finally released on Wednesday suggested that top Labour grandee Jonathan Powell told Sir Keir Starmer's own general counsel that he felt the process to fast-track the former cabinet minister was happening too quickly.

Other documents in the scandalous dossier show the PM's underlings demanding the appointment be made "at pace", despite extensive reporting at the time of the peer's close links to the now-deceased paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. In the documents, the first tranche of which were made public on Wednesday, Mr Powell said he found the appointment process "unusual", according to a September 12, 2024, call record. Mr Powell, the national security adviser, also "raised concerns about the individual and reputation" to the Prime Minister's then-chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, the memo said, but Mr McSweeney "responded that the issues had been addressed".

Mr Powell has been a key part of successive Labour governments, and first stepped in as chief of staff to Sir Tony Blair in 1995. He is even referenced in documents dating back to 2002, where Lord Mandelson arranges a meeting with Sir Tony and the now-deceased paedophile.

Opposition figures have reacted with fury at the release, with Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Alex Burghart saying: "These documents just confirm what we already knew. Keir Starmer was plainly aware of the relationship between Mandelson and the world’s most notorious paedophile when he appointed him as US ambassador.

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"What’s worse, the Government gave him a payoff of £75,000 despite his resignation in disgrace.

"No one will be able to trust the Prime Minister’s judgement again. The Labour Government needs to come clean on what documents have been hidden from view and whether WhatsApps or private emails have been deleted or hidden.

"The Government must release the files in full and make Mandelson repay the money."

The Government claims it "wouldn't have wanted to pay £1" to Mandelson, with Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones saying: "Peter Mandelson was employed as a civil servant, not as a minister.

"That meant that, on his summary dismissal by the Prime Minister, he had the right to take a claim to the employment tribunal.

"As you can see in the documents, Peter Mandelson asked for a much larger sum, with the implied threat that that would be taken through legal proceedings with associated legal costs.

"The Government wouldn’t have wanted to pay £1 to Peter Mandelson, but in contrast to the cost to the taxpayer of employment tribunal legal fees and maybe a payment that, in the advice, would have been higher than the amount that was given, the Government reluctantly agreed to that award.

"The Prime Minister has since said that Peter Mandelson should either return that money or donate it." Lord Mandelson denies any wrongdoing.