Wes Streeting has said he felt he was “hitting up against a brick wall” when raising concerns about Gaza in government, following the release of private messages in which Peter Mandelson accused him of being “hysterical” over the issue.
The leaked WhatsApp exchanges, part of a large document disclosure related to Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador, showed Mandelson criticising Streeting to cabinet minister Pat McFadden. In July 2025, Mandelson described a message from Streeting as “a wild long hysterical message about Israel”, adding that it “reflects pretty badly on his maturity”. McFadden later noted that Streeting had circulated videos and a note to cabinet on Gaza, including a dossier from doctors who worked under Israeli bombardment.
Mandelson called Streeting’s intervention “pathetic” and suggested he was “experiencing an early mid-life crisis”. In response, Streeting said he was “horrified by the war in Gaza” and had shared eyewitness testimony from doctors to ensure the conflict “wasn’t a war without witnesses”. He added: “I wasn’t by any means the only cabinet minister pushing for action, but we often felt like we were hitting up against a brick wall.”
The 22-page dossier, seen by the Guardian, contained graphic images of children with acute malnutrition and amputated limbs. One doctor described operating on up to a dozen children daily, many screaming in pain due to a lack of analgesics, and said half the casualties were children.
Other messages showed Mandelson describing Keir Starmer’s Downing Street as “beleaguered and bereft” and saying the prime minister “lacks verve, as does the cabinet as a whole”. McFadden also complained that Labour MPs were focused on taxing to pay benefits. Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds called the messages “embarrassing” but said they were released due to a parliamentary motion.
