Mandelson-Epstein latest: Ex-minister insists he won’t ‘hide under a rock’ despite ‘shocking’ email revelations

The Clintons have agreed to testify in the US congressional investigation into paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

A spokesperson for former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary said the couple were willing to comply with a congressional subpoena for their testimony in a House investigation into Epstein.

Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s powerful chief of staff in Downing Street, is increasingly becoming the focus of briefings in Westminster regarding his future.

The man who is credited with making Sir Keir Labour leader in the first place and who organised the general election campaign was a big advocate for Lord Mandelson to be the ambassador to the US.

Mandelson was McSweeney’s mentor and he is understood to have pleaded with the prime minister not to sack him last year as the new wave of allegations of the peer’s links with Jeffrey Epstein broke.

One Labour MP told The Independent: “McSweeney is the obvious sacrificial lamb here to save Starmer.”

But others wonder if Starmer can survive in Downing Street without McSweeney.

Political editor David Maddox reports:

Pressure is mounting on Keir Starmer to bring forward a bill to strip Lord Mandelson of his title and seat in the House of Lords.

Veteran Labour MP Andy McDonald has added his voice to the growing cross party demands with the government claiming it needs wider reform of the system before dealing with Mandelson.

Asked whether Mandelson should be removed from the Lords, Mr McDonald told Times Radio: “He either does that voluntarily or we should sit until we can pass legislation. We could do it in a day and have the Mandelson Act and expel him from the House of Lords.”

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey called for a public inquiry after accusations that Lord Mandelson leaked sensitive government information to Jeffery Epstein.

Sir Ed told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I certainly support a police investigation. It looks like crime has been committed, misconduct in public office, which is very serious, it impacts everyone’s lives if someone at the very top of government is betraying our country.

“So, (it’s) very serious. Definitely a police investigation. Clearly, Lord Mandelson should be stripped of his peerage, but I think we need to think even more deeply about this. I think the case for a public inquiry into national security, and indeed the British victims of Jeffrey Epstein, has now become a requirement.

“This is so serious in the impact it has on how we govern ourselves, as well as, of course, the victims, that I think the case for a public inquiry is now overwhelming.”

Lord Mandelson has insisted he will not “hide under a rock” despite the “shocking” email revelations related to his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

“Hiding under a rock would be a disproportionate response to a handful of misguided historical emails, which I deeply regret sending,” he told The Times in an interview, which was published on Monday evening but partly conducted last week before the latest tranche of Epstein files was released.

“If it hadn’t been for the emails, I’d still be in Washington. Emails sent all those years ago didn’t change the relationship that I had with this monster.

“I feel the same about the recent download of Epstein files, none of which indicate wrongdoing or misdemeanour on my part.”

Lord Mandelson’s continued membership of the House of Lords is “shameful”, a government minister said, but legislating to remove him would be complicated.

Health minister Karin Smyth said the Government was seeking cross-party consensus on a way to remove the former ambassador to the US following the release of emails suggesting he leaked sensitive information to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Ms Smyth told Times Radio: “It is shameful. It does shame politics, and that’s why the Prime Minister was clear that he doesn’t think that Peter Mandelson should continue to be a lord.

“But that isn’t in the government’s direct gift. It requires primary legislation, and that requires also being passed by the Lords. We don’t have majority in the Lords, which is why it needs to be approached on a cross-party basis.”

She added: “That would need to be a careful piece of legislation. So it’s important that it will be done on a cross-party basis to make sure that it did get passed.

“So that is the right thing to do, and I hope that all parties do come together to do that, because it does bring shame on the institution.”

Political correspondent Millie Cooke reports:

Baroness Harman has joined calls for Lord Mandelson to be removed from the Privy Council and prevented from returning to the House of Lords.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she believes Labour’s manifesto pledge to remove disgraced members from the House of Lords will be “got on with”, adding: “In the meantime, I think the Prime Minister could be advising the King to stop him from being a privy councillor.

“And I also think that, he’s on leave of absence, at the moment, from the House of Lords, having stepped out of the House of Lords to be our ambassador, and I think it would be good for the Lords to pass a motion to say that he’s not to reapply to come back in.”

Baroness Harman said she has believed Lord Mandelson to be untrustworthy since the 1990s, but “could never have believed” he would leak information while a cabinet minister.

She said: “I was of the view that Peter Mandelson was untrustworthy from the 1990s, but he was appointed by Tony Blair, he was appointed by Gordon Brown, and appointed again by Sir Keir Starmer.

“But even I, who had a view that he was untrustworthy, I could never have believed that, Gordon Brown having appointed him to the cabinet, that he would sit in that cabinet and leak information whilst the government was struggling to protect the country from the global financial crisis.

“Even I have been shocked at the degree of his wrongdoing.”

Lord Mandelson has “cast a stain” over politics amid accusations he leaked sensitive government information to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, Baroness Harman has said.

Baroness Harman, who was leader of the Commons and deputy Labour leader when Lord Mandelson was business secretary, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “What’s so terrible about what Peter Mandelson has done is that it’s played into the sense that people have that politicians are all the same, we’re all in it for ourselves, we’re all in it for money.

“That is not the case, but what Peter Mandelson has done is cast a stain over, not just this Government, but over politics as a whole. I’m sure the Government are in absolutely no doubt about the seriousness of it, and will be taking action and Peter Mandelson will be held accountable.”

Political correspondent Millie Cooke reports:

A government minister has said Lord Mandelson should testify in the US after fresh revelations about his links with Jeffrey Epstein emerged this week.

“We’ve been very clear that anybody with any evidence around the whole Epstein issue should go and testify”, Karin Smyth told Sky News.

Pressed on whether Lord Mandelson specifically should go and testify, she said: “That’s a yes, isn’t it, because anybody who’s got information should support the investigation and should be as open as they can be.”