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Sir Keir Starmer told Peter Mandelson that he was "really looking forward" to "working side by side" with him, the night before he made the announcement that the peer would be becoming US Ambassador. According to reports the message was buried in a slew of documents that Cabinet Office officials have been collating after MPs demanded the release of the so-called Mandelson Files.

The message said that the now-disgraced peer, once called the 'Prince of Darkness', would "be brilliant in challenging circumstances" with the Prime Minister reportedly adding: "After many years of our discussions, we get to work together side by side. I really look forward to that.". The message was leaked this week, during a turbulent period for Sir Keir after he sacked the head of the foreign office, Sir Olly Robbins, and was accused of misleading the House of Commons.

The staggering revelation comes at the tail-end of a painful week for No10, in which it was also revealed that Sir Keir's office had lobbied for a cushy diplomatic post for Matthew Doyle, his former director of communications. The now ennobled Lord Doyle sits as an independent peer in the House of Lords after it emerged he had campaigned for a sex offender.

And it follows accusations by Sir Olly that No10 had been "dismissive" of the need to vet the then-incoming US Ambassador, and that the foreign office had faced pressure to get Lord Mandelson in post as soon as possible.

Reporting in the UK magazine The Spectator even says that a dossier of embarrassing documents may never see the light of day - including one missive which reports to be a "warm" note to the disgraced peer sent on the day he was sacked. Lord Mandelson was dismissed from his post after further evidence of his relationship with the convicted American pedophile Jeffrey Epstein came to light.

It has also emerged this morning that the National Crime Agency was informed of other allegations about the peer and the pedophile in Spring 2024. A senior official, as reported in the Financial Times, informed No10 at the time.

The Lord Mandelson scandal has led to a veritable bloodbath in Whitehall with numerous officials and advisors to the Prime Minister being given the boot. In the past 22 months since the Labour Party came into office in a landslide election win there had been three chiefs of staff, three cabinet secretaries and five directors of communications.

As the scandal has continued to worsen, it has caused Sir Keir to face calls to resign - initially just from opposition parties. However in recent days relations within the Labour Party have reportedly soured. Yesterday three Labour MPs called for the Prime Minister to go, and in two national newspapers this morning it was reported that a Cabinet Minister had also made the call, although that minister was not named.

A former civil servant, speaking to the Spectator, said: "'They don't understand, because they've only been around for five minutes, that the people who've been around for a very long time look at Starmer and see that he is guilty of exactly the same behaviour as Boris Johnson. Things are worse in Downing Street than during the worst of Boris. The only people who can save the country now are Labour MPs."