Mandelson let his country down, PM says in call to ‘move at pace’

Sir Keir Starmer said Lord Mandelson has “let his country down” and warned he was “not reassured that the totality of the information has yet emerged” regarding revelations in the Jeffrey Epstein files.

He has also tasked officials with drafting legislation that will allow the former ambassador’s peerage to be removed “as quickly as possible”, Downing Street said.

No 10 also revealed the Cabinet Office has referred material to the police after an initial review of documents released as part of the so-called Epstein files found they contained “likely market sensitive information” and official handling safeguards had been “compromised”.

The Prime Minister told his Cabinet on Tuesday that the alleged transmission of emails of highly sensitive government business was “disgraceful” amid accusations that the peer leaked information to the paedophile financier.

Files released by the US Department of Justice apparently showed Lord Mandelson passing material to Epstein while serving as a cabinet minister in Gordon Brown’s Labour administration.

The peer has insisted Epstein’s money did not influence his actions in government as Scotland Yard reviews reports of alleged misconduct in a public office.

In a readout of Cabinet on Tuesday, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Sir Keir opened the meeting by addressing “recent developments relating to Peter Mandelson.”

“The Prime Minister said he was appalled by the information that had emerged over the weekend in the Epstein files,” he said.

“He said the alleged passing-on of emails of highly sensitive Government business was disgraceful, adding that he was not reassured that the totality of information had yet emerged.

“The Prime Minister told cabinet that Peter Mandelson should no longer be a member of the House of Lords or use the title, and said he had asked the Cabinet Secretary to review all available information regarding Mandelson’s contact with Jeffrey Epstein during his time serving as a government minister.

“He said he’d made it clear the Government would cooperate with the police in any inquiries they carried out, but he said the Government had to press and go further, working at speed in the Lords, including legislatively if necessary.

“He reiterated that there was a need to move at pace.

“The Prime Minister said Peter Mandelson had let his country down.”

Pressure is mounting on the Government to legislate to strip him of his peerage if he does not resign voluntarily from the upper house and to remove his membership of the Privy Council.

No 10 said officials are drafting legislation that allows Peter Mandelson’s peerage to be removed “as quickly as possible”.

The move could lead to a new law being passed within weeks to remove Lord Mandelson from the House of Lords.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said there was also a broader need for the House of Lords to be able to “remove transgressors” more quickly.

Proposals on this will be published as soon as possible, he said.

Asked if this meant the Government is preparing primary legislation, he said it is “looking at all options”.

The Cabinet Office has meanwhile referred material to the police after an initial review of Epstein files documents showed they likely contain market sensitive information and suggested that “safeguards were compromised”, No 10 said.

It is understood the referral was made today.

“An initial review of the documents released in relation to Jeffrey Epstein by the US Department of Justice … found that they contain likely market sensitive information surrounding the 2008 financial crash and official activities thereafter to stabilise the economy.

“Only people operating in an official capacity had access to this information and (there were) strict handling conditions to ensure it was not available to anyone who could potentially benefit from it financially.

“It appears these safeguards were compromised.

“In light of this information the Cabinet Office has referred this material to the police.”

In a Times interview conducted before the latest allegations came to light, Lord Mandelson admitted to a “lapse in judgment” over Epstein’s funding of an osteopathy course for the peer’s husband Reinaldo Avila da Silva in 2009, at the time the government was dealing with the global financial crisis.

The files contain reference to a £10,000 transfer from Epstein.

“In retrospect, it was clearly a lapse in our collective judgment for Reinaldo to accept this offer. At the time it was not a consequential decision,” he said.

Lord Mandelson rejected the suggestion this left him open to bribery claims, with Epstein lobbying him to change banker bonus rules.

The peer, whose place in the House of Lords is in question, insisted he had “absolutely no recollection” of receiving payments totalling 75,000 US dollars (around £55,000) from Epstein between 2003 and 2004 as bank details in the files release by the US Department of Justice indicated.

He suggested he did not want to fully exit public life, saying that “hiding under a rock would be a disproportionate response to a handful of misguided historical emails, which I deeply regret sending”.

He told the newspaper that none of the recently released Epstein files “indicate wrongdoing or misdemeanour on my part”.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting told BBC Radio 5 Live that Lord Mandelson’s actions were a “betrayal on so many levels” – to Epstein’s victims, through continued association with him after his 2008 conviction for prostituting a minor, to the current Prime Minister and to Mr Brown.

Former deputy Labour leader Baroness Harman told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she had long viewed Lord Mandelson as “untrustworthy” but “even I have been shocked at the degree of his wrongdoing”.

Baroness MacLeod, special adviser to then chancellor Alistair Darling as the Government responded to the 2008 financial crash, said it was a “terrible breach of trust”.

She said her former boss, who died in 2023, would have been “shocked at the scale of this treachery”.