Officials 'drafting legislation' to fast-track Mandelson's peerage removal, Downing Street says
Officials are drafting legislation that allows Lord Peter Mandelson’s peerage to be removed “as quickly as possible”, Downing Street has said, while stressing there is also a broader need for the House of Lords to be able to swiftly remove “transgressors”.
Sir Keir Starmer told the Cabinet on Tuesday that the alleged passing-on of emails of highly sensitive government business was “disgraceful” and that he was “not reassured that the totality of the information has yet emerged” regarding the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Mandelson has insisted Epstein’s money did not influence his actions in government as Scotland Yard reviews reports of alleged misconduct in a public office.
The Metropolitan Police said the reports will be reviewed "to determine if they meet the criminal threshold for investigation".
A government spokesperson said it is right for the "police to determine whether to investigate, and the Government stands ready to provide whatever support and assistance the police need.”
The latest batch of files, released on Friday, appears to show Mandelson passing information to Epstein while he was a cabinet minister in Gordon Brown's government.
They appear to show:
A document containing what looks like a private memo for then-prime minister, Gordon Brown, with highly sensitive economic policy plans. Mandelson appears to describe it as an "interesting note" as he forwarded it to Epstein.
Bank statements from 2003 and 2004 appear to show Mandelson received payments totalling $75,000 from Epstein. He is also said to have paid for an osteopathy course for Mandelson's husband.
Mandelson appeared to tell Epstein he would lobby ministers over a tax on bankers' bonuses in 2009.
Mandelson appears to confirm an imminent bailout package for the Euro, the day before it was announced in 2010.
On Sunday night, Mandelson resigned his Labour membership and said he has “no record or recollection” of alleged financial payments made to him by Epstein. He said they need "investigating by me".
Though this means he is still a peer, he has been on leave from the House of Lords since he took up his post in Washington, and reportedly has no plans to return.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Tuesday that Mandelson's actions were a "betrayal on so many levels".
In an interview with BBC 5 Live, Streeting said it was a "betrayal of the victims of Jeffrey Epstein" as well as the "betrayal of not just one, but two prime ministers."
He added that while there is widespread outrage over Mandelson's conduct across political parties, at the Labour Party, they feel "that betrayal acutely".
Baroness Harman, who was leader of the Commons and deputy Labour leader when Lord Mandelson was business secretary, said she believed Mandelson to be untrustworthy since the 1990s, but “could never have believed” he would leak information while a cabinet minister.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, she said she had been "shocked at the degree of his wrongdoing."
She added: "What Peter Mandelson has done has cast a stain over, not just this Government, but over politics as a whole.
"I’m sure the Government are in absolutely no doubt about the seriousness of it, and will be taking action and Peter Mandelson will be held accountable.”
Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats have called for a statutory inquiry into how Epstein was able to “gain access to the heart of the British political establishment”.
Sir Ed Davey said: “Epstein was leaked highly market-sensitive information by a minister acting as a mole in Whitehall, leaving our institutions dangerously exposed and posing a grave threat to national security.
“A full public inquiry with powers to compel witnesses and access messages and emails is essential.
“Only complete transparency can restore public trust, deliver justice for victims and prevent this level of corruption from ever happening again.”
Downing Street earlier said Starmer had asked Cabinet Secretary Sir Chris Wormald to conduct “an urgent review” looking at “all available information regarding Mandelson’s contacts with Epstein during his period as a government minister”.
Former prime minister Gordon Brown said he had asked Wormald to investigate the disclosure of “confidential and market-sensitive information” during the global financial crisis.
Nick Macpherson, former permanent secretary to the Treasury, suggested in a social media post that then-chancellor Alistair Darling had suspicions about leaks at the time.
“Alistair Darling and the official Treasury were always aware that investment banks had an inside track to Number 10. But the brazen nature of that inside track is rather breath-taking,” he posted on BlueSky.
Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, told the Commons on Monday that Lord Mandelson “must account for his actions and conduct”.
He added that the information emerging in recent days had been unknown to both the Labour Party and the government before the files were released.
In his resignation letter on Sunday, Lord Mandelson said he was "regretful" he had been "further linked this weekend to the understandable furore surrounding Jeffrey Epstein."
He said: “Allegations which I believe to be false that he made financial payments to me 20 years ago, and of which I have no record or recollection, need investigating by me.
“While doing this, I do not wish to cause further embarrassment to the Labour Party and I am therefore stepping down from membership of the party."
He also apologised to the "women and girls whose voices should have been heard long before now".
ITV News has repeatedly tried to put the allegations to Mandelson, but there has been no response.
In an interview conducted by The Times before the latest allegations came to light, he admitted to a “lapse in judgment” over Epstein’s funding of an osteopathy course for his husband in 2009 - at the time the government was dealing with the global financial crisis.
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Mandelson rejected the suggestion tthat his left him open to bribery claims, with Epstein lobbying him to change banker bonus rules.
“There was non-stop discussion from the entire industry about reforming the banks and how to strike the right balance in regulation,” Mandelson said.
“The idea that giving Reinaldo an osteopath bursary is going to sway mine or anyone else’s views about banking policy is risible.”
Elsewhere, the King has been urged to contact lawyers representing a woman who claims to have been sent to the UK by Epstein for a sexual encounter with his brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
The former prince has featured in the documents on a number of occasions, including images which appear to show him crouched over an unidentified woman who is lying on the floor.
Being mentioned in the files is no indication of wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, Sarah Ferguson’s international charity, Sarah’s Trust, announced it would close for the foreseeable future.
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