British politician Peter Mandelson is quitting the House of Lords as he faces new questions, and a potential police investigation, over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. The Speaker of the House of Lords, Michael Forsyth, said Mandelson has announced he will retire from Parliament’s upper chamber effective Wednesday. The announcement came as the British government prepared legislation to eject Mandelson from the Lords and remove the noble title, Lord Mandelson, that came with his lifetime membership in Parliament’s upper chamber.
The Government also said it had sent a file of material to police who are looking into allegations that Mandelson passed sensitive government information to the late sex offender. Prime Minister Keir Starmer told his Cabinet on Tuesday that he was “appalled” by the revelations in newly released Epstein files, and was concerned there are more details still to emerge.
A trove of more than 3 million pages of Epstein-related documents released by the US Justice Department has brought excruciating revelations about 72-year-old Mandelson, who served in senior government roles under previous Labour governments and was UK ambassador to Washington until Starmer fired him in September over his ties to Epstein.
The newly released files contain details about Mandelson’s contacts with the disgraced financier, including emails passing on nuggets of political information, some of which critics say may have broken the law. Police say they are reviewing reports of misconduct “to determine if they meet the criminal threshold for investigation.”
Starmer spokesman Tom Wells said that the government had sent police its assessment that the Mandelson-Epstein documents contained “likely market-sensitive information” about the 2008 global financial crisis and its aftermath that shouldn’t have been shared outside of Government.Among the revelations in the files: In 2003-2004, bank documents suggest Epstein sent three payments totalling $75,000 to accounts linked to Mandelson or his partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva.
