Say what you like about the Right Honourable Peter Mandelson, Baron Mandelson of Foy in the County of Herefordshire and of Hartlepool in the County of Durham, he still has the capacity to surprise. We knew about the weakness for very rich people. We assumed he was behind plenty of briefing to journalists. But blimey, we didn’t know he was just forwarding the prime minister’s emails to a paedophile financier.
Monday’s revelations were gobsmacking in every way. Take the way that the then-secretary of state passed the market-sensitive information to the trader. You might have imagined that these transactions involve untraceable accounts or burner phones or pieces of paper stuffed into envelopes and handed over in underground garages. As it turns out, Mandelson was simply pressing “forward” within seconds of the messages arriving on his BlackBerry and winging them on to Jeffrey Epstein’s Gmail account. I guess that was the one thing that GCHQ didn’t expect.
When he left government, Mandelson became even wealthier as a lobbyist. To most of us, the world of lobbying is a mystery. Perhaps you imagined it involved quiet words had over expensive lunches, or astute observation of political trends. Who knew that it really boils down to leaking everything you get your hands on to the richest man you know, and trusting that he’ll come through with cash and the holidays when you’re a bit short?
Of course, how was Mandelson to know that Epstein, who seemed so plausible, was a wrong ‘un? Well, one clue was that, at the very moment Mandelson was forwarding this stuff, Epstein WAS IN PRISON. He had pleaded guilty to procuring a minor for prostitution. You don’t need to know much about the US legal system to know that when a millionaire pleads guilty, it’s to the absolute minimum charge. And yet somehow Mandelson persuaded himself that Epstein was actually doing time for stealing bread to feed orphans.
Perhaps the money helped. The noble baron is sadly unable to remember exactly how many thousands he received from Epstein, although it seems that the number is quite a lot larger than the appropriate amount for an MP to have received from the financier, which is nothing.
Naturally, everyone was outraged. Gordon Brown, roused from the cave in Fife where he sleeps until it is time for him to come once again to Britain’s aid, issued a statement demanding an investigation into what had been leaked. The probe might also want to look at who was prime minister when Mandelson was brought back into government, given a peerage, and put in charge of everything.
Stephen Flynn of the SNP demanded to know whether the police were investigating. Usually, this kind of thing is that most appalling cant, especially coming from members of a party whose leaders have more experience than most of the inside of a police interview room. But in this case it was absolutely fair enough. Was Epstein the only wealthy man exchanging favours with Mandelson, or simply the only one we know about?
It is impossible to write about Epstein, including here, without mentioning his crimes, but even if the financier had been a saint, Mandelson’s decision to forward him confidential government information would still have been a scandal. Get caught doing that in any other job, and your feet wouldn’t touch the floor. It seems reasonable to ask whether Mandelson should still receive a ministerial pension.
If they had any sense, they would take Mandelson’s peerage, kick him out of the Privy Council, and charge him with misconduct in public office
At moments like this, you start to wonder whether the people who say the entire political class is corrupt might have a point. Although the champion of that faction is Nigel Farage, who is on course to become a millionaire just from his outside interests over the course of this parliament. He would be an unlikely choice to clean the stables, even if we admire his chutzpah at putting up Robert Jenrick — who once unlawfully approved a housing development for a Tory donor — to denounce Mandelson’s behaviour.
Late in the day the Cabinet Office minister Darren Jones was sent to the Commons to try to contain the mess. He announced a rapid inquiry to find out what else Mandelson might have leaked, and proposed reforming the disciplinary procedures in the Lords so that Mandelson could be stripped of his title. In keeping with the government’s strategy of doing the right thing only when it’s too late to get any credit, Jones resisted calls to pass a short bill to simply do that immediately. If they had any sense, they would take Mandelson’s peerage, kick him out of the Privy Council, and charge him with misconduct in public office. The sooner the better.
