A Labour minister has spoken out after embarrassing messages to Lord Mandelson revealed his frustration with Labour MPs over the ballooning benefits bill. Pat McFadden complained to the peer that Labour backbenchers just wanted to know “who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others”.

The WhatsApp messages from last year, which emerged as part of the latest release of documents relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador, were seized on by the Tories and Reform UK. During a grilling on GB News, the Work and Pensions Secretary said his exchanges with Lord Mandelson reflected the typical “back and forth” between politicians. Mr McFadden said: “I’ve known Peter Mandelson for many years and these messages are kind of back and forth about politics and Government that go on a lot.

“Politics is a series of constant conversations, and that’s what’s reflected in the material that was produced the other day.”

He added that he was not aware at the time of the extent of Lord Mandelson’s ties to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, which led to him being sacked in September 2025.

Mr McFadden said: “Of course, you write things in these messages – and I’m sure everybody does – that they probably, when they wrote them, didn’t expect them to be published.

“Having said that, you know, I’ve said both in private and in public that we need to change the question that the welfare system asks.

“What I mean by that is we need to move from a question which just asks: what benefits are you entitled to? To a question that says: how can we help you change your life?

“I think that is a progressive welfare reform question, because it puts work and opportunity at the heart of what you’re trying to do. I’ve been saying that in public and in private for a long time.”

He added: “I don’t think you can or should do welfare reform just by saying: ‘Here’s a sum of money we’ve got to save,’ and then you graft on the policy afterwards.”