The secret texts that reveal the moment Starmer's authority was 'destroyed'

Sir Keir Starmer’s current welfare minister said the Prime Minister “destroyed” his own authority by watering down his benefit reforms last year, in damaging secret texts revealed in the Mandelson files.

Pat McFadden, the Work and Pensions Secretary, was discussing with Lord Mandelson – then-US ambassador – the Labour rebellion against sickness and disability benefit cuts which threatened to wipe out the Prime Minister’s House of Commons majority.

McFadden also criticised Labour MPs who were against the cuts, saying: “Every meeting I have is, ‘Who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others,'” the text messages reveal.

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In private WhatsApp messages on 24 June revealed in the Mandelson files, as a 120-strong Labour revolt gathered pace, McFadden said the situation was “very bad” with rebels “not moving” despite a full Cabinet effort to meet and talk around MPs.

McFadden said Starmer was “meeting the ringleaders today”, adding: “I think it’s very bad. Defeat, pull [the] bill or gut it all destroy his authority.”

McFadden added: “Keir’s authority.” Mandelson replied: “Yes I am afraid so.”

The next day, Starmer’s Government caved to the rebels and U-turned on planned cuts to the personal independence payment (PIP) and the sickness element of universal credit (UC) – costing the Government £3bn and blowing a hole in Rachel Reeves’s spending plans.

The climbdown has widely been seen as the moment Starmer’s leadership was fatally undermined, and the texts will further damage the PM as he appears to head towards a leadership challenge from Andy Burnham or Wes Streeting, or both.

McFadden’s criticism of MPs who were resisting the welfare cuts had come weeks earlier in another exchange with Mandelson on 2 May, where he accused them of “asking the wrong questions”.

Elsewhere, McFadden, often seen as a Starmer loyalist, and Mandelson discussed other concerns with the PM’s leadership.

At one point, Mandelson said that the “comms leadership is shit” in No 10 “by common agreement”, picking up on concerns that Downing Street was failing to get its messaging out.

He also claimed that Starmer’s own chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, told him that he had “no faith in Keir’s ability to change No 10” and that he should therefore prioritise winning the support of Labour backbenchers.

Elsewhere, Mandelson told McFadden that Starmer’s leadership style was “advance/buckle/advance/buckle” following a string of damaging policy U-turns.

In other exchanges which show that concern about Starmer was not restricted to a narrow set of senior Labour figures, Pensions Minister Torsten Bell suggests that the Government has been “messy” due to a failure to grip policy.

After Bell said “the big picture” of the Government is “messy” in a text exchange in July 2025, Mandelson responded by saying that “it’s messy because the government doesn’t do policy, generally speaking, well enough. It all starts with policy”.

Bell goes on to reply: “Well that is definitely true – everyone seems to think it’s someone else’s job to get the policy right… which is very odd”

Mandelson replied: “As the saying goes, rubbish in rubbish out…”

Responding to McFadden’s comments on welfare, the Conservatives said: “Labour’s Welfare Secretary admitted to Peter Mandelson what he won’t tell you. Labour raised your taxes to pay for more benefits.”

The i Paper understands McFadden has been working on a new attempt at welfare reform focused on work and opportunity for young people.

A spokeswoman for McFadden said: “Pat has fully complied with the Humble Address and handed over all messages.

“His only contact with Peter Mandelson since he left government has been to urge him to think about the victims in all this and apologise to them.”