Jonathan Powell has some explaining to do.

Leaked government emails, dug up by Guido Fawkes, show that Starmer's Chagos negotiator was requesting classified Foreign Office documents from his private consultancy email address before the public even knew he'd been given the gig.

On 29th August 2024, barely a month after Labour took power, Powell emailed FCDO officials asking for "a low classification version" of meeting minutes between Starmer, David Lammy, and the Mauritian PM. He'd already read the classified original in person. "I read it when I came in but would like to see it again," he wrote.

He knew the material was sensitive. He said himself it was probably too hot "for sending by Signal or WhatsApp."

The civil servants agreed. They offered to print him a copy for when he arrived in Port Louis, Mauritius.

His formal appointment as Chagos envoy wasn't made public until 6th September. A week after he was already getting the classified briefings.

So a man with no official government role, still technically working for his private consultancy Inter Mediate, was accessing state secrets from a personal email. Nobody in Parliament knew. Nobody in the public knew.

And here's the bit that'll make your tea go cold: about a month after reading those classified documents, Powell went to Beijing. On consultancy business, apparently.

The Chagos deal itself was already toxic. Britain signed away sovereignty of islands housing a US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean. Defence hawks were furious. And now we find out the man who brokered it was freelancing in the shadows, using Gmail or whatever, before jetting off to China.

What was his security clearance when he saw those files? What did he talk about in Beijing? Was the deal essentially stitched up in private before Parliament got a look in?

These aren't fringe conspiracy questions. They come straight from the government's own correspondence.

Downing Street hasn't commented. They'll need to eventually.