Peter Mandelson‘s problems are mounting as he faces being quizzed by a council for relieving himself in the street.
As exclusively revealed by the Daily Mail in November, the disgraced former US Ambassador was photographed urinating against a garden wall after a late-night visit to George Osborne‘s Notting Hill home.
Lord Mandelson, 72, was caught short while waiting for an Uber, he said as he fessed up. He had arrived at the former Tory chancellor’s £10million townhouse three hours earlier, armed with a bottle of Chilean wine.
Yet, in farcical scenes on Wednesday, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) Council said it would not be taking any enforcement action due to a ‘lack of evidence’, with the published pictures, chosen carefully on the grounds of taste and decency, ‘not showing an offence’.
However following enquiries by the Mail – including pointing out that Lord Mandelson had apologised as recently as last weekend – RBKC changed course and said it will ‘be in contact with the politician’.
RBKC councillor Johnny Thalassites said: ‘We have seen images appearing to show a prominent politician caught short on one of our streets and have investigated a possible offence.
Peter Mandelson was caught relieving himself against a garden wall after a late-night visit to George Osborne’s Notting Hill home in November
In the pics snapped last year, Mandelson had arrived at the former Tory chancellor’s £10million townhouse three hours earlier, carrying an upmarket bottle of Chilean wine
Mandelson’s visit to Osbourne’s home coincided with the publication of 20,000 documents from Epstein’s estate last year
‘However currently it is not clear if an offence has taken place and therefore we are looking again at the evidence and will be in contact with the politician.
‘While we appreciate that nature can call at the most inconvenient moments, we are proud of our borough’s clean streets and amazing spaces and it is unacceptable for anyone to treat them as a urinal.’
At the time Lord Mandelson told the Mail: ‘I can only offer my profuse apologies. I was stood up by two Uber drivers and kept waiting in the street for half an hour and was bursting. There is no disguising my embarrassment.’
The ex-Labour minister repeated his admission in an interview earlier this week, in which he said that people had told him the photographs were ‘very humanising’.
It came as Tory MP Sir Christopher Chope referenced the incident in the Commons chamber on Wednesday, telling MPs: ‘We have to thank our mercies that Mandelson has been exposed finally and it wasn’t just the exposure outside George Osbourne’s house’.
