#downing-street

#downing-street

Earlier on Tuesday Downing Street confirmed they have sent the Metropolitan Police a file on the former US ambassador over his links with paedophile Epstein. Scotland Yard confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that they have received a report from Downing Street. On Monday, Ella Marriott, Commander of the Met, said, "The reports will all be reviewed to determine if they meet the criminal threshold for investigation. "As with any matter, if new and relevant information is brought to our attention we will assess it, and investigate as appropriate."

No 10 normally holds two briefings on most days that parliament sits to allow the lobby political journalists that cover Westminster to question the prime minister's official spokesperson. But in an email on Thursday, Tim Allan, Downing Street's executive director of communications, said there would be no afternoon briefings from next month. He said No 10 would instead hold occasional afternoon press conferences with ministers, as well as technical briefings with officials.

"It's not been our finest 24 hours in government," one senior figure in government acknowledged to me, after mudslinging one way and another, some in public, plenty more in private. I have been making loads of phone calls to patch together the anatomy of another bumpy few days for Downing Street: what those close to the Prime Minister hoped to achieve, what ended up happening and where all this leaves them.

The Conservative Party has written to Sir Keir Starmer demanding answers over the extent of Downing Street's knowledge of Lord Mandelson's links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The Tories also called for the prime minister to release documents relating to Mandelson's appointment, including evidence that shows how No 10 reacted when they learned of his ties to Epstein. On Sunday, the BBC reported that Starmer explicitly asked Mandelson about his links to the paedophile before deciding to appoint him as ambassador to the US.

Downing Street may have to scale back or even abandon deploying thousands of soldiers to Ukraine as the risks are too high.