British politician Peter Mandelson resigns from the House of Lords and may face police investigations over his ties to Epstein

LONDON (AP) — British politician Peter Mandelson is leaving the House of Lords as he faces new questions and a potential police investigation over his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

He watches: What the latest files released about Epstein’s relationships with prominent figures show

Lords Leader Michael Forsyth said Mandelson had informed officials he would retire from the upper house of Parliament from Wednesday.

The announcement came as the British government prepared legislation to expel Mandelson from the House of Lords and remove the noble title, Lord Mandelson, that came with his seat in the House. Mandelson will retain the title after his retirement unless lawmakers pass legislation to strip him of it, something that has not happened in more than a century.

The government also said it had sent a dossier containing material to police investigating allegations that Mandelson passed sensitive government information to the disgraced financier.

A trove of more than 3 million pages of documents related to Epstein, released by the US Department of Justice, made painful revelations about the 72-year-old Mandelson, who served in senior government positions under previous Labor governments and was the UK ambassador to Washington until Prime Minister Keir Starmer fired him in September over his ties to Epstein.

The newly released files contain emails from Mandelson to Epstein, conveying nuggets of political information, some of which critics say may have violated the law. Police say they review misconduct reports “to determine whether they meet the criminal threshold for investigation.”

Starmer told his cabinet on Tuesday that he was “appalled” by the revelations in the newly released Epstein files, and expressed concern that there were more details yet to emerge. He ordered the civil service to conduct an “urgent” review of all of Mandelson’s communications with Epstein while he was in government.

Starmer’s spokesman, Tom Wells, said the government had sent police its assessment that the Mandelson-Epstein documents contained “market sensitive information” about the 2008 global financial crisis and its fallout which should not be shared outside the government.

Among what was revealed in the files:

• In 2003-2004, bank documents indicate that Epstein sent three payments totaling $75,000 to accounts linked to Mandelson or his associate Reynaldo Avila da Silva. Mandelson said he did not remember receiving the money and would investigate whether the documents were authentic. But he resigned from the ruling Labor Party on Sunday, saying he did not want to cause “further embarrassment” to the party. In 2008, Epstein avoided federal prosecution by pleading guilty to state charges in Florida of enticement and prostitution of a minor. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Emails and text messages show that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein continued after the financier’s sentencing.
• In 2009, Epstein sent Da Silva £10,000 (about $13,650 in today’s prices) to pay for a course of osteopathic treatment. “In retrospect, it was clearly an error in our collective judgment for Rinaldo to accept that offer,” Mandelson told The Times of London.
• Also in 2009, Mandelson, then the UK government’s business secretary, apparently told Epstein that he would lobby other members of the government to cut the tax on bankers’ bonuses.
• In the same year, Mandelson sent Epstein an internal government report discussing ways in which the UK could raise money after the 2008 global financial crisis, including by selling government assets. “An interesting note has reached the Prime Minister,” Mandelson wrote.
• In May 2010, Mandelson sent a message to Epstein that “sources tell me the €500 billion bailout” was about to expire. The letter was dated hours before European governments announced a 500 billion euro deal to support the single currency.

Epstein died by suicide in a prison cell in 2019, while awaiting trial on US federal charges accusing him of sexually assaulting dozens of girls.

Health Minister Wes Streeting said Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein was “betrayal on so many levels”.

“It’s a betrayal to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims that he continued that relationship and that friendship so long after his conviction,” Streeting told the BBC. “It is a betrayal of not just one prime minister, but of two prime ministers” – Gordon Brown, the UK leader between 2007 and 2010, and Starmer.

An email seeking comment on the documents was sent to Mandelson through the House of Lords.