Wes Streeting accused Israel of committing “war crimes” and “talking the language of ethnic cleansing”, amid fears that he could lose his seat at last year’s general election to a pro-Gaza independent, in recently released text messages to Lord Mandelson, Britain’s former ambassador to the United States.
Streeting narrowly clung on to his Ilford North constituency by just 528 votes after facing a challenge from a pro-Gaza independent.
The health secretary, tipped as a potential successor to Sir Keir Starmer, voluntarily released WhatsApp and text messages between himself and the New Labour grandee sent between August 2024 and October 2025, claiming he had “nothing to hide”, amid an ongoing probe into Mandelson relating to his relationship with the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Although sacked as ambassador in September over his links to Epstein, Mandelson resigned last week as a member of the House of Lords after documents released by the US Justice Department revealed more evidence of his and the paedophile’s extensive communications over the years.
The files allegedly showed Mandelson sending Epstein confidential government information while he was a minister under Gordon Brown, and a police investigation into his conduct has been launched.
Last week, Parliament passed a motion to require the government to release to the Intelligence and Security Committee documents relating to Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador and all ministerial communication between him and government ministers.
On Monday, Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, told MPs that the government was “committed to being as transparent as soon as possible and in full compliance with the motion.”
The prime minister’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigned on Sunday after advising Starmer to appoint Mandelson, and was followed the next day by Tim Allan, Starmer’s director of communications.
Speculation about the prime minister’s future has been raging since the departures, with Streeting seen as one of the leading potential successors.
Last week, the Times reported that allies of Angela Rayner – the former deputy prime minister and a potential leadership rival for the health secretary – said that Streeting would be “ruined” by the mass disclosure of all communications with Mandelson in the coming months.
Mandelson campaigned for Streeting in previous general elections and the pair are from the same moderate wing of the Labour Party.
Last night, both Streeting and Rayner – along with all the overwhelming majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party – backed Starmer to stay in Downing Street.
However, Streeting took the unusual step of releasing his communications with Mandelson to Sky News and appeared on the channel’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast. He claimed he made the decisions to publish his own communications “rather than just let the innuendo continue”, saying that he had nothing to hide.
He went on: “The reality is I maybe had dinner with Peter Mandelson on average once a year, that he certainly offered advice to me and to others in government... I haven't spoken to him since he was sacked. I haven't communicated with him since he was sacked. I will never speak to Peter Mandelson again.”
In one exchange with Mandelson from March 2025, Streeting expressed fear that he would lose his Ilford North constituency – where an estimated 30 per cent of voters are Muslim – to a pro-Gaza candidate at the next election.
The pair were both critical of the government, with Mandelson saying that “the government problems do not stem from comms”, and Streeting agreeing, stating: “Quite.”
The health secretary continued: “I fear we're in big trouble here - and I am toast at the next election. We just lost our safest ward in Redbridge (51% Muslim, Ilford S[outh, his neighbouring constituency]) to a Gaza independent. At this rate, I don't think we'll hold either of the two Ilford seats.”
Streeting’s majority in his Ilford North constituency – where around one in three voters are Muslim – was slashed from 5,198 in 2019 to just 528 in 2024, with pro-Gaza independent candidate Leanne Mohammed nearly causing an upset.
He went on to say that “there isn't a clear answer to the question: ‘why Labour?’”, to which Mandelson replied: “The government doesn't have an economic philosophy which is then followed through in a programme of policies.”
The Ilford North MP retorted: “No growth strategy at all.”
On 24 July 2025, the health secretary also expressed robust criticism of Israel and thought that the government should join France in recognition of a Palestinian state, which it did a few days later.
He texted Mandelson: “Israel is committing war crimes before our eyes. Their government talks the language of ethnic cleansing and I have met with our own medics out there who describe the most chilling and distressing scenes of calculated brutality against women and children.”
Streeting then said that he feared potential backlash for the Labour Party if they were seen to oppose recognition of a Palestinian state.
“Politically, a Commons vote will be engineered in September on recognition, and we will lose it if we're not ahead of it. There are no circumstances in which people like me or Shabana [Mahmood, the home secretary] could abstain or vote against, for example. [Labour] Conference will be a sea of Palestinian flags and the moderates will be waving them”, he added.
The health secretary continued: “We need to be leading the charge on this. The alternative is being dragged there with enormous damage to Keir, the govt [sic] and the party.
“I've never been a shrinking violet on Israel. I've supported LFI [Labour Friends of Israel] for over 20 years. Our sister party [Yair Golan’s Democrats], Haaretz [a left-wing Israeli newspaper], and progressives are clear about what's being done in their name and they oppose it.”
Mandelson expressed concern that unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state could harm prospects of a two state solution: “If Israel decided that unilateral recognition justified further WB [West Bank] annexation which the US would be powerless to stop or reverse. That would be the end of it” and urged “practical means to get a 2SS [two state solution], not quickly I grant but realistically”.
Streeting replied that Israeli government policies amounted to de facto annexation of the West Bank in any case.
“Israel is doing it anyway”, he said, adding: “This is rogue state behaviour. Let them pay the price as pariahs with sanctions applied to the state, not just a few ministers.”
The government introduced sanctions against far-right Israeli ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in June last year – the first time Israeli ministers have ever faced sanctions by a British government – over their “repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities” in the West Bank.
Commenting on the messages, a Jewish communal source told the JC: “As many suspected at the time, these texts reveal how recognition was primarily about managing the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party] with little thought given to how to actually create a Palestinian state.
"There is no universe where a council by-election in Ilford should have any bearing on British foreign policy. These issues should be treated with the seriousness they deserve.”
On Monday, support for Starmer poured in from cabinet members, MPs and regional mayors, despite the call for his resignation by Anas Sarwar, the leader of Scottish Labour.
One Labour MP, who had previously expressed frustration with Starmer, told the JC that Sarwar’s intervention had the opposite effect and helped unite MPs around the prime minister.
“He’s basically said he’s a crap leader and can’t win in Scotland and wants to offload the blame on someone else!”, the MP said.
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