Steve Reed’s aide blocks members’ vote on Mandelson scandal

A meeting in the Streatham and Croydon North constituency was this week banned from discussing a motion that called for an investigation into how the Blairite peer with a paedophile pal came to be handed the job as Britain’s Ambassador to the United States.

EXCLUSIVE By STEVEN DOWNES

Oscar Harman, a senior aide to the Housing, Communities and Local Government minister Steve Reed, this week used his powers to block all discussion of an emergency motion to go to the Labour Party annual conference that called for an inquiry into Peter Mandelson’s appointment as Britain’s Ambassador to the United States.

The motion referred to Lord Mandelson’s “highly disturbing correspondence with notorious paedophile and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein”.

Harman, the chair of the Streatham and Croydon North Constituency Labour Party, didn’t even bother turning up for the meeting with members. But as the CLP chair in Reed’s backyard, he didn’t need to.

Since 2024, Harman has enjoyed a meteoric rise while working as Reed’s constituency office manager, then as the MP’s parliamentary advisor, until, last week, he announced that he had been handed a lucrative Civil Service job – as a SPAD, special advisor, to the Secretary of State at MHCLG – meaning, of course, Reed.

Harman is widely tipped to be selected to stand for Labour in the notionally safe Streatham Wells ward in Lambeth at next May’s local elections – although his selection may require the deselection of sitting councillor Malcolm Clark. Not that Labour has a track record for certain factions in the party “fixing” candidate selections at all, ever…

Harman’s 2024 appointment as the first chair of the new Streatham and Croydon North Constituency Labour Party is understood to have come after strong urgings from Reed.

This week, those Labour members who did bother to show up for their CLP meeting say that Harman provided no reasons for rejecting the motion.

“I thought it was interesting for a government official to block even the discussion of an investigation of serious malfeasance in public office,” one member told Inside Croydon.

“That’s how the Labour Party works under Steve Reed,” said another.

The motion had been passed at a ward branch meeting in Thornton Heath earlier in the week, but it needed CLP approval to be submitted to Labour’s Conference, which begins in Liverpool today. The motion was drafted by Dominic Curran, a solicitor who lives in Thornton Heath.

Blairite favourite Lord Mandelson has now had to be dismissed from senior government jobs on three separate occasions. He was sacked as Ambassador to Washington earlier this month when a series of communications between him and the convicted paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, were placed in the public domain.

In the early days of the Labour government under Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney, No10’s chief of staff, is understood to have called on Mandelson for advice and political support.

McSweeney is also thought to have been influential in the decision to hand the Washington job to Mandelson.

McSweeney and Reed have worked closely together over the past 20 years or so, first when Reed was the leader of Lambeth Council, then more recently on the party-within-a-party, Labour First, which led the campaign to get Starmer elected as party leader using hundreds of thousands of pounds of undeclared donations.

Inside Croydon has obtained a copy of the emergency motion that Steve Reed’s top aide didn’t want anyone to discuss.

Conference notes the interview given by Keir Starmer with Gary Gibbon on Channel 4 News on 16 September 2025 regarding the dismissal of Lord Peter Mandelson as British Ambassador to the United States… following revelations to the press of Mandelson’s close association, and highly disturbing correspondence, with notorious paedophile and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Conference also notes that some details of Peter Mandelson’s association with Jeffrey Epstein was known to the public when he was appointed as Ambassador in December 2024.

Conference is concerned that at the time of his appointment in December 2024, the Civil Service may have been at least partly aware of the extent of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and the disturbing correspondence between the two men that has now come to light in the press.

Conference, out of commitment to justice and accountability for all survivors of sexual violence, therefore calls 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 of which are questions that SPAD Oscar Harman has ensured won’t now even be debated. And that’s something of which his boss, government minister Steve Reed, no doubt wholeheartedly approves.

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

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

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