Key events
US officials stalling UK criminal investigation into Mandelson – report
Good morning. The UK criminal investigation into Peter Mandelson has reportedly ground to a halt after the US justice department refused to hand over evidence contained in the Epstein files.
The documents relate to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which Scotland Yard believes could hold key evidence related to Mandelson, who served as business secretary and US ambassador. While the Met has asked for voluntary disclosure, the US department of justice is insisting on a Mutual Legal Assistance (MLA) request, a legal back and forth between countries to obtain evidence, the Telegraph has reported.
The process could take from several months to over a year, according to some estimates, potentially delaying Scotland Yard’s investigation into Mandelson, who was arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Even the Met police commissioner Mark Rowley’s direct appeals to the US ambassador, Warren Stephens, and his personal trip to Washington in March had failed to move the process forward, the newspaper reported.
Speaking of withholding documents, yesterday Cat little, the top civil servant at the Cabinet Office, said the Foreign Office had refused to hand over a summary of Mandelson’s security vetting. Speaking at a Commons committee, Little said she had to get the document directly from UK Security Vetting (UKSV) instead after Olly Robbins, the subsequently sacked Foreign Office head, refused to provide it. You can read more on that story here:
In other news:
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MPs must decide what to do with the assisted dying bill, which is set to run out of time to become law when a final debate ends in the House of Lords today. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has stalled in the Lords, which passed in the House of Commons almost a year ago, with more than 1,280 amendments made. Supporters of the bill, which would allow terminally ill adults who are given fewer than six months to live to seek medical help to end their life, now fear the bill is doomed to fail.
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Reform UK has asked steel bosses to draw up an “alternative steel strategy” to rival recent government plans, stoking industry fears over a charm offensive by Nigel Farage’s party as it eyes gains in former Labour heartlands. Reform is trying to harness growing anger at the government for high business energy bills, exacerbated by the Iran war, which are damaging steel companies and the wider manufacturing sector. Reform’s overtures have received a mixed reception across the industry.
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Donald Trump has threatened to impose “a big tariff” on the UK if it does not drop its digital services tax on US social media firms. The digital services tax, introduced in 2020, imposes a 2% levy on the revenues of several major US tech companies. “We’ve been looking at it and we can meet that very easily by just putting a big tariff on the UK, so they better be careful,” Trump said.
On the agenda today:
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Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch will hold a rally in Swindon with shadow transport secretary Richard Holden.
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Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey will join a tea dance and meets residents at a care home in Wokingham.
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Green Party leader Zack Polanski is holding a press conference in Glasgow.
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