British politician Peter Mandelson faces pressure to quit House of Lords over Jeffrey Epstein ties

Audio By Carbonatix

LONDON (AP) — A year ago, Peter Mandelson was Britain’s ambassador to Washington, the latest high-profile post in a rocky but consequential political career.

Friendship with Jeffrey Epstein cost him that job. Now, after new revelations, Mandelson — like other powerful men including King Charles III's brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — is facing new demands he come clean about his relationship with the late sex offender.

Mandelson resigned from the governing Labour Party on Sunday following new claims he received payments from Epstein two decades ago. Mandelson said he was stepping aside to avoid causing “further embarrassment,” even as he denied the allegations stemming from a trove of more than 3 million pages of documents relating to Epstein released by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who fired Mandelson from his ambassadorial job over earlier revelations about his Epstein ties, is now urging him to quit politics altogether and testify in the U.S. about what he knew of the financier's activities.

Some opposition politicians called for a criminal investigation into Mandelson over claims he gave Epstein sensitive government information. The Metropolitan Police force said it had received “a number of reports relating to alleged misconduct in a public office” and would review them "to determine if they meet the criminal threshold for investigation.”

Starmer urged Mandelson on Monday to resign from the House of Lords — Parliament's unelected upper chamber of politicians, donors and assorted notables — to which he was appointed for life in 2008. That would also mean relinquishing his noble title, Lord Mandelson.

If he refuses, ejecting him would be a lengthy process requiring Parliament to pass legislation — a process last undertaken more than a century ago to remove the titles of aristocrats who sided with Germany in World War I.

“The prime minister believes that Peter Mandelson should not be a member of the House of Lords or use the title,” said Starmer spokesman Tom Wells. “However, the prime minister does not have the power to remove it.”

Mandelson — like Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew — is also facing calls to testify about Epstein in the U.S.

Cabinet minister Steve Reed said Monday that both men have a “moral obligation” to share any information that could help Epstein’s victims.

Epstein died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on U.S. federal charges accusing him of sexually abusing dozens of girls. Years before he had avoided federal prosecution by pleading guilty to state charges in Florida of solicitation of prostitution involving a minor and another charge.

The latest release of Epstein files includes hundreds of text and email messages exchanged between Mandelson and the financier, revealing the British politician's warm relationship with the man he called “my best pal” in 2003.

Several documents seem to refer to payments from Epstein to Mandelson or his partner, Reinaldo Avila da Silva. What appear to be bank statements from 2003 and 2004 suggest an Epstein account sent three payments totaling $75,000 to accounts connected to Mandelson.

Mandelson has questioned the authenticity of the bank statements. In a letter to Labour resigning from the party, Mandelson said he had no recollection of receiving that money and would investigate.

“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 wrote.

Mandelson added that he wanted to “repeat my apology to the women and girls whose voices should have been heard long before now.”

Other documents suggest that in 2009 Epstein sent da Silva 10,000 pounds (about $13,650 at today's rates) to pay for an osteopathy course.

The documents also include an email exchange from 2009 in which Mandelson, then a U.K. government minister, appeared to tell Epstein he would lobby other members of the government to reduce a tax on bankers’ bonuses.

Documents also suggest Mandelson sent details of sensitive U.K. government discussions to Epstein after the 2008 global financial crisis.

Starmer on Monday ordered the civil service to conduct an “urgent” review of all of Mandelson’s contacts with Epstein while he was in government.

Also among the files is a photo of Mandelson in a shirt and underwear, standing near an unidentified woman in a bathrobe.

A email requesting comment on the documents was sent to Mandelson through the House of Lords.

Mandelson, 72, has been a major, if contentious, figure in the center-left Labour Party for decades. He is a skilled — critics say ruthless — political operator whose mastery of political intrigue earned him the nickname “Prince of Darkness.”

The grandson of former Labour Cabinet minister Herbert Morrison, he was an architect of the party’s return to power in 1997 as centrist, modernizing “New Labour” under Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Mandelson served in senior government posts under Blair between 1997 and 2001, and under Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2008 to 2010. In between, he was the European Union’s trade commissioner.

Mandelson twice had to resign from government during the Blair administration over allegations of financial or ethical impropriety, acknowledging mistakes but denying wrongdoing.

He later returned to government, and was back on the political front line when Starmer named him to the key post of ambassador to Washington at the start of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term. Mandelson’s trade expertise and comfort around the ultra-rich were considered major assets with the administration. He helped secure a trade deal in May that spared Britain some of the tariffs Trump has imposed on countries around the world.

But Starmer fired him in September after emails were published showing Mandelson's friendship with Epstein continued even after the financier's 2008 guilty plea.

___

This story has been updated to correct that documents suggest Epstein sent Mandelson's partner 10,000 pounds, not $10,000. It was also updated to correct that the Justice Department says the release contains more than 3 million pages of documents, not more than 3 million documents.