MP Reed gets dragged into the scandal over Peter Mandelson

The Croydon MP and friend of Morgan McSweeney is ‘disingenuous’ in his claims over how his aide blocked debate about the controversial appointment of Ambassador to the United States.

Mostly, here at Inside Croydon, we report the news. But sometimes, we make the news, as was the case when ITV’s Good Morning Britain quoted from our pages as they put a cabinet minister on the spot over his part in the cover-up over the disgraced traitor Peter Mandelson.

The scandal around Mandelson, his links with the convicted paedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his then appointment as His Majesty’s Ambassador to the United States threaten to end Keir Starmer’s time as Prime Minister.

At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday Starmer finally admitted, far too late, that Mandelson’s continuing links to Epstein after the latter’s conviction were known when the decision was made to appoint the Blairite peer to the important Washington job.

Starmer’s excuse? That known liar Mandelson had lied to him and his team. And this despite a supposedly watertight vetting process overseen by the country’s top spooks from MI6.

It was public knowledge that Mandelson had twice been sacked from government during the Blair and Brown years. The Epstein Files now show that when he wasn’t sacked, but was back in the cabinet as business secretary, Mandelson was forwarding confidential government documents to his mate, New York financier Epstein.

And yet somehow Starmer agreed to make Mandelson Ambassador to the United States.

It has been reported that when Labour won their General Election landslide in 2024, Mandelson wasn’t on the shortlist to be Britain’s next Ambassador to the United States, probably the most prestigious and important role in the country’s diplomatic corps. In fact, there wasn’t even a vacancy. Karen Pierce, a career diplomat, had been doing a decent job.

Pierce was also known to have experience of being able to “handle” Donald Trump. Mandelson, meanwhile, had just been a guest at Epstein’s notorious parties, some of which had also been attended by Trump.

But when he was appointed as Starmer’s chief of staff at No10, Morgan McSweeney tore up the advice of his predecessor, Sue Grey, and pushed Starmer to make the Mandelson appointment.

McSweeney and Mandelson are known to have long been friends and colleagues, working together within the Labour Party and on its fringes. Paul Holden’s book, The Fraud, provides an in-depth account of how McSweeney used nearly £1million in donations fraudulently to get Starmer selected as Labour Party leader.

And one of McSweeney’s closest collaborators over the past 20 years or so, from their days working together at Lambeth Town Hall, has been Steve Reed, the MP for Streatham (and Croydon North if he can be bothered).

Reed is now the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government in Keir Starmer’s cabinet.

That’s the same Steve Reed who threatened to sue Inside Croydon after we reported from Lambeth Council documents that he ordered paid officials to spy on his Labour councillor colleagues’ emails. Reed never did sue, of course; it was an idle threat, perhaps intended to intimidate us. He never had a case, as our reporting was solid and based on public documents.

Reed was among those implicated in the 2021 hack of this website, after he was sent documents that had been illegally obtained, and which were used to discredit colleague Labour councillors. He was shadow justice minister at the time, but he is not thought to have acted to uphold the law by turning in the stolen documents to the police.

And today, in the Good Morning Britain hot seat to field questions about the government’s Mandelson crisis was Steve Reed.

The split screen video of the interchange, at the top of this page, shows very well the government minister’s discomfiture as presenter Susanna Reid mentions Inside Croydon, “a local paper” (oh dear).

His face turned a shade of beetroot as interviewer Reid went through a report we published last September, which recounted how Reed’s aide, Oscar Harman, had used his powers as chair of the local Labour Party to stop a member’s motion from even being debated, before possibly being referred to the forthcoming Labour Party Conference.

“Twisted half-truth,” MP Reed lied when questioned on national television.

He then sought to justify his and his aide’s actions in blocking the motion by saying that it was allowed to be discussed at the CLP’s next meeting. Which, as Reed knew all too well, was irrelevant, because by then it was too late for the motion to go for debate to Labour Party Conference.

Presenter Reid spotted this, and she pressed minister Reed on the point. “According to Inside Croydon…,” she said, “that was a call for an inquiry from your local constituency party which was blocked back in September.

“Was that motion discussed at Labour Party Conference?”

Reed was floundering, going through the motions.

Reid came back at him. “It’s just that, obviously, the issue of Lord Mandelson, his appointment as US Ambassador, is now threatening the position of the Prime Minister, and people might wonder [if] it had been discussed , and put forward to Labour Party Conference.

“But it wasn’t,” she said.

Reed’s best line? Mandelson, a proven liar, lied.

The motion – put to Steve Reed’s local Labour Party six months ago – called for a thorough investigation into who knew what and when about Mandelson’s association with Epstein, “out of commitment to justice and accountability for all survivors of sexual violence”.

The motion called on “the government to launch an inquiry into the circumstances of Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US Ambassador, to make findings on the following issues:

“What vetting and due diligence process was followed regarding Mandelson’s appointment?

“What advice did the government receive from the Civil Service and other relevant bodies regarding the links between Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein?

“How did the government respond to any advice received regarding links between Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein?

“How amends can be made to victims and survivors of Jeffrey Epstein?”

All reasonable enough. But blocked by Steve Reed’s aide at his local Labour Party.

It was unfortunate that Good Morning Britain’s Susanna Reid never got to ask Steve Reed why anyone would block such a motion.

The motion was written by Dominic Curran, a solicitor living in Thornton Heath.

Today, Curran confirmed that his motion was eventually allowed to be discussed by members at the following month’s CLP meeting, by which time it was impossible for it to go forward to Conference.

Curran told Inside Croydon: “It is disingenuous to excuse the blocking of the motion by saying it was passed at the next constituency meeting, because it was drafted as an emergency motion to Labour Party Conference 2025. The chair…,” meaning Oscar Harman, a MHCLG aide to Reed, “… only allowed it to be discussed once conference was over, thus saving Keir Starmer and Morgan McSweeney from embarrassment.

“If Thornton Heath branch had been listened to in September 2025, perhaps the Labour Party could have started to put things right earlier. But they chose not to.”

Since the events at the Streatham and Croydon North CLP in September 2025, Oscar Harman has been effectively promoted at work, seconded to Downing Street for a month to oversee the Prime Minister’s diary.

Meanwhile, Dominic Curran, who drafted the motion calling for a proper investigation into the Mandelson appointment has, like so many tens of thousands of others, resigned from the Labour Party.

More Reed: Reed group fined for slow declaration of £800,000 donations

More Reed: Now Labour suspends selections in MP Steve Reed’s backyard

Inside Croydon – If you want real journalism, delivering real news, from a publication that is actually based in the borough, please consider paying for it. Sign up today: click here for more details

PAID ADS: To advertise your services or products to our 10,000 weekday visitors to the site, as featured on Google News Showcase, email us inside.croydon@btinternet.com for our unbeatable ad rates

If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com

As featured on Google News Showcase

We offer FREE ads to community groups when they have members who are paid subscribers to Inside Croydon

Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here