Ministers braced for private texts and WhatsApps in Mandelson file release

The appointment of Peter Mandelson as the UK's ambassador to Washington is like a bad news boomerang for the government. Over and over again the prime minister's most consequential judgement in office circles back into ministers' airspace – and today it will do with gusto. It will be "another one of those weeks" one senior figure said, wearily. The scale of what is to come will be quite something: the largest government publication ever put before the Commons, and therefore us, other than the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War – and that was a 12 volume, 2.6 million word affair. It won't be on that scale, but it will run to over 1,000 pages. The first tranche, back in March, amounted to 147 pages. Printed and bound, the publication will be made up of three volumes. More than 160 of the pages are made up of Lord Mandelson's text messages and WhatsApps. Downing Street has said it will be released at around 14:30 on the government website, and there will be a statement in Parliament from Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the PM after that. The bundle will include a substantial explanation from the government of how much effort it took for officials to collate all the information Par