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Minister missing from Mandelson files recalls ‘nightmare’ of stolen phone

Nick Thomas-Symonds said he lost personal photos and exchanges with former U.S. ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson.

Beginning of the trial against Lisa R. at Higher Regional Court in Koblenz
3months ago
By John

Nick Thomas-Symonds said he lost personal photos and exchanges with former U.S. ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson.

AI generated Text-to-speech

LONDON — A British minister whose messages with Peter Mandelson are absent from the public disclosures forced by the Jeffrey Epstein scandal recounted Tuesday the “nightmare” of having his phone stolen.

In an interview with Sky News, Nick Thomas-Symonds — the Cabinet minister overseeing the U.K.’s “reset” in relations with the EU — described how one of a group of three people on mopeds swiped his device last Oct. 15 while he was walking near the Home Office.

“Unfortunately as well, I lost not only WhatsApp, I also lost, unfortunately, personal photos of mine going back a few years. It was a nightmare, actually, in terms of recovering items,” he said.

Asked about missing exchanges with Mandelson on his personal phone, Thomas-Symonds said the pair had swapped messages of congratulations on their respective appointments, and were in a discussion about the former Labour peer’s campaign to be elected chancellor of Oxford University.

U.K. lawmakers in February demanded the government publish communications between Mandelson, ministers, and officials in an attempt to understand what the government knew about the ambassador’s relationship with Epstein. Ministers and officials were asked to hand over any messages with Mandelson to comply with MPs’ demands.

Thomas-Symonds is not the only senior government figure whose phone was stolen last fall, in the weeks after Mandelson was sacked as U.S. ambassador to Washington.

Morgan McSweeney, who at the time was Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief adviser, reported his own phone had been snatched by a man on a bike five days after Thomas-Symonds on Oct. 20.

Contest could give Andy Burnham — who has eyes on the Labour leadership — a route back into parliament to challenge Keir Starmer.

The former deputy prime minister could now put herself forward in a contest to replace Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The Reform UK leader said he finds the far-right German party’s ties with dictators “very, very difficult.”

The British monarch delivered a jovial address to Washington’s leaders that was laced with plenty of shade.

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