Scotland Yard began a full criminal investigation into Peter Mandelson on Tuesday.
The move followed more damning revelations about the ex-Labour grandee’s relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
While he was a Cabinet minister, the former spin doctor repeatedly tipped off the tycoon about market-sensitive government plans, emails suggest.
On Tuesday, the Government and ex-prime minister Gordon Brown got in touch with the Metropolitan Police, leaving the peer facing an unprecedented probe.
It came as the Daily Mail uncovered further sensational details about Lord Mandelson’s dealings with Epstein, with whom he remained close even after the financier had been jailed for child sex offences.
One bombshell email seemingly showed the pair discussing confidential negotiations over a £10billion Ministry of Defence contract while Lord Mandelson was business secretary in Gordon Brown’s government.
In another exchange, on the day Epstein was released from prison, the pair appeared to joke about celebrating with ‘two strippers’ – with Lord Mandelson branding his paedophile friend a ‘naughty boy‘ for making the suggestion.
Lord Mandelson has previously suggested his status as a gay man meant he was ‘kept separate from what (Epstein) was doing in the sexual side of his life’.
Among the three million pages of so-called Epstein Files released by the US Department of Justice are bank statements that suggest Lord Mandelson and his husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, received payments from Epstein totalling tens of thousands of pounds.
Scotland Yard began a full criminal investigation into Peter Mandelson on Tuesday
No10 said Sir Keir Starmer was ‘appalled’ by the revelations regarding Mandelson. Pictured: Starmer (R) talks with Peter Mandelson during a welcome reception at the ambassador’s residence on February 26, 2025 in Washington, DC
Labour’s ‘Dark Lord’ is named as the recipient of three $25,000 (£21,500) payments, which he denies getting, while Mr da Silva was the subject of a standing order that paid out $4,000 (£2,900) a month for three months.
On Tuesday, the disgraced peer finally bowed to public pressure and resigned his seat in the House of Lords.
But he now faces a police investigation into allegations of misconduct in public office – an offence that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison for those convicted.
The Labour grandee, who has always denied wrongdoing, is now likely to be interviewed by officers over claims that his dealings with Epstein broke the law.
Cabinet ministers David Lammy and Pat McFadden, who served as junior ministers in his department, could also be asked to provide evidence, as could Mr Brown.
Confirmation of a police probe came just hours after Downing Street revealed that the Cabinet Office had sent its own dossier to detectives highlighting the ‘market-sensitive’ nature of the material apparently passed by Lord Mandelson to Epstein at the height of the financial crisis.
No10 said Sir Keir Starmer was ‘appalled’ by the revelations. He told a meeting of his Cabinet that Lord Mandelson had ‘let his country down’.
But Kemi Badenoch said Sir Keir and his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, had ‘a lot of questions to answer’ about why they appointed Lord Mandelson as ambassador to the United States despite knowing he had maintained his friendship with the notorious paedophile.
The Tory leader branded the scandal a ‘national embarrassment’. She said the police inquiry was ‘inevitable’ given the seriousness of the allegations, but said people ‘should not let this distract us from the fact that the Prime Minister has his fingerprints all over this’.
Pictured: Jeffrey Epstein
Kemi Badenoch said Sir Keir and his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, had ‘a lot of questions to answer’ about why they appointed Lord Mandelson as ambassador to the United States despite knowing he had maintained his friendship with the notorious paedophile
She added: ‘I think the Prime Minister himself needs to come clean and tell us what he knew and when, and be honest about how this ever happened in the first place.’
On another day of high drama:
- Police were ‘assessing’ an allegation that Epstein trafficked a woman to Britain to have sex with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in 2010. The former prince has always denied any wrongdoing;
- Mrs Badenoch prepared to force a Commons vote today that could require No10 to release all the details surrounding Lord Mandelson’s appointment;
- Nigel Farage wrote to Attorney General Lord Hermer seeking assurances that he will not block a potential prosecution of Lord Mandelson under the Official Secrets Act;
- The European Commission launched a review of Lord Mandelson’s links with Epstein that could cost the former trade commissioner his £31,000-a-year EU pension;
- No10 dismissed calls to claw back the reported six-figure payoff handed to Lord Mandelson last year, saying it would not comment on an ‘HR matter’;
- The Prime Minister asked officials to draw up emergency legislation to remove Lord Mandelson’s peerage;
- Robert Jenrick called for Lord Mandelson to lose his ministerial pension, with the proceeds donated to charities working with victims of sexual abuse.
Emails contained in the Epstein Files suggest that Lord Mandelson tipped off Epstein about a €500billion bailout (£365billion) of the Eurozone in 2010, potentially giving the financier a golden opportunity to cash in.
Undated picture shows Epstein and Mandelson on a yacht
A photograph released as part of the Epstein files apparently shows Lord Mandelson talking to a woman who is wearing a white bath robe
He also apparently forwarded to Epstein a private note to Gordon Brown setting out plans to sell off assets to raise funds, prompting the New Yorker to reply: ‘What saleable assets?’
On Tuesday, after days of dithering, Sir Keir appeared to recognise the scale of the danger posed to the Government by the fallout from the scandal.
Facing a growing Labour revolt over his handling of the fiasco, the PM moved on Tuesday to condemn his former friend – and ordered officials to co-operate with a potential police probe.
No10 said the PM told the Cabinet that he was ‘appalled’ by the revelations about the Labour grandee. He said the alleged passing of sensitive government emails to Epstein was ‘disgraceful’, adding that the shamed peer had ‘let his country down’.
The PM said the public would find it ‘gobsmacking’ that Lord Mandelson apparently could not recall receiving payments from Epstein running into tens of thousands of pounds.
It came as Lord Mandelson’s rap sheet continued to grow on Tuesday, with the Daily Mail uncovering previously unseen emails detailing his complex relationship with Epstein.
One exchange appears to show the then business secretary discussing confidential negotiations between Britain and the US over a £10billion contract for air-to-air refuelling aircraft.
The March 2010 conversation apparently showed Lord Mandelson moaning about being cut out, after which Epstein urged him to ‘make a stink’ about it, saying: ‘Stick up for your country hard. Brits will rally behind.’
Peter Mandelson in photo relased as part of the Jeffery Epstein-related files by US Justice
The email appears to reference to a deal signed by the MoD for 14 air-to-air refuelling planes that were due to enter service from 2011. The £10.5billion deal was agreed through a 27-year private finance initiative (PFI) contract, under which a private company would own them and provide them to the MoD.
The deal charted new ground and negotiations became politically controversial. The National Audit Office later found that the MoD had grossly overpaid and lacked the skill to negotiate such a contract.
The existence of the deal would have been public knowledge, but the fact that there were frictions between the US and UK over it – including President Barack Obama ignoring then PM Mr Brown – would not have been.
Further indiscreet emails seem to show Lord Mandelson venting his frustration about the prime minister to Epstein during the final months of Mr Brown’s time in Downing Street.
In one email, sent in March 2010, Lord Mandelson apparently said that Mr Brown had at that stage taken to ‘victimhood and spraying blame’, adding: ‘The PM needs to be confined asap to a sanitorium.’
Meanwhile, further examples of Lord Mandelson allegedly leaking market-sensitive information to Epstein emerged.
In March 2010, Lord Mandelson’s principal private secretary sent him a note of a meeting between the then chancellor, Alistair Darling, and US Treasury secretary Larry Summers.
Lord Mandelson appeared to forward the note – which contained live details of sensitive financial regulation that could be hugely valuable to banks and financial institutions – to Epstein within five minutes of receiving it.
A second note was apparently sent on within two minutes of Lord Mandelson receiving it.
In 2022 a picture emerged of Lord Mandelson, who appears to be singing as Epstein blows out the candles on a birthday cake in Epstein’s Paris lair
The files also suggest that, during this period, Lord Mandelson’s husband was paid $4,000 a month by Epstein through a standing order set up while he was de facto deputy prime minister.
Three payments, totalling $12,000, were sent into Mr da Silva’s account in April, May and June 2010. This is separate to the £10,000 payment sent in 2009 from Epstein to Mr da Silva to fund an osteopathy course and other expenses – a payment that Lord Mandelson has not disputed.
On Tuesday, the General Osteopathic Council, the industry regulator, said Mr da Silva did not finish the course and so is not a registered osteopath.
That ‘bursary,’ as Mr Mandelson has classed it, was also separate to the three payments totalling $75,000 (£55,000) alleged to have been made to accounts connected to Lord Mandelson between 2003 and 2004.
Lord Mandelson said he has no record of receiving any such payments and questioned whether the documents were real. He has always denied any wrongdoing.
