US Department of Justice Release of Files

Lord Lilley Excerpts

Thursday 5th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)]

I can assure the noble Earl that every effort has been made to protect all evidence and information that may be available. The Department of Justice has said that it has now downloaded all the emails from Jeffrey Epstein, but the noble Earl will understand that there are ongoing inquiries around those. I suppose the greatest assurance I can give him is that every effort will be made to get all relevant information, because, unless we have that relevant information, we cannot necessarily take appropriate action. So I can give him that assurance.

[Lord Lilley (Con)]

My Lords, can the Minister tell us what role Peter Mandelson played as ambassador in convincing the American Government of the merits of the Chagos deal? Did he discuss it personally with the President and the Secretaries of State? In so doing, did he honestly tell them about the Pelindaba treaty, about the fact that we have an opt-out from juridical judgments of the ICJ, and other important matters, or did he, as was his custom, conceal the truth?

[Baroness Smith of Basildon (Lab)]

My Lords, the issue of the Chagos Islands—which I know the noble Lord has strong feelings on—is not entirely relevant to the discussion we are having today, which I think is about the victims of a known paedophile and going beyond that. Obviously, an ambassador would have those discussions—[Interruption.] I would be grateful if the noble Lord did not heckle from a sedentary position, as I want to try to answer his question. Obviously, an ambassador has ongoing discussions with the Administration during the time they are ambassador; other officials in the UK Government will be having those discussions with the American Government as well, and they are ongoing.