Mandelson-Epstein latest: Starmer refers dossier on ‘shocking’ emails to police

A journalist has described Peter Mandelson as “dismissive rather than charming“, with this going “to the heart of Westminster’s problem”.

Sky News’ lead politics presenter Sophy Ridge said in a post on X: “People who look at Westminster, in the same way as they might look at Washington, and think, this is a closed group of elites, who all know each other, who go to the same parties, and share the same in jokes – well, to a large extent, they are right.”

She continued: “Status is everything… And Peter Mandelson is the embodiment of that. Charming, well-connected, gossipy. In the inner circle.

“If we’re honest with ourselves, that’s the reason he’s been allowed to fail and then be rehabilitated so many times. It’s the reason he was given the best job in politics, US Ambassador, despite being friends with a paedophile. And it’s the reason he’s had a softer landing than many others would have in his position.”

Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:

The prime minister has ordered an investigation into Lord Mandelson’s contacts with Jeffrey Epstein while in government.

The cabinet office has also referred assessments of the original emails to the Metropolitan Police today.

It is understood this was at the government’s instigation and had not been requested by police. 

The Met Police already said on Monday that they were reviewing reports into alleged misconduct in a public office after the peer was accused of leaking sensitive information to  Epstein while he was a cabinet minister in Gordon Brown’s government.

Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:

Sir Keir Starmer opened cabinet today by saying he was “appalled” at the emails that have emerged between Lord Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein.

He told his ministers that the alleged passing on of government information was  “disgraceful”.

He also admitted there could be more to come in the scandal.

And he said that for the public to see a politician say they cannot recall significant sums of money was “gobsmacking”.

The prime minister has also asked officials to draft legislation to kick him out of the House of Lords.

He said Lord Mandelson had “let his country down” and his actions risked undermining voters’ faith in politics.

The latest documents appear to include emails between Andrew and Epstein from 2010 – two years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution. Epstein served 13 months in jail before being released on probation under house arrest until summer 2010.

An exchange between Epstein and an email account named “The Duke”, from which messages were signed “HRH The Duke of York KG”, dated late July 2010 show the two appearing to make plans to meet.

On 24 July 2010, Epstein emailed to say “I will be in Paris starting tomorrow.”

That same day, ‘The Duke” replied: “Congratulations! [Redacted] told me you were allowed out from yesterday. How long in Paris for? I am back in London from 16th. A”.

New revelations about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor have also emerged following the release of the latest tranche of Epstein documents by the US Department of Justice.

In one email, from the former Duke of York, he can be seen inviting Epstein to what is thought to be Buckingham Palace, in the months after the sex offender was released from house arrest. In an exchange on 29 September 2010, Andrew said: “Delighted for you to come here to BP. Come with whomever.”

New revelations about Sarah Ferguson have emerged after the latest tranche of Epstein documents was released by the US Department of Justice on Friday.

An email to the disgraced billionaire from a sender called Sarah, whom The Independent believes to be the former duchess, has emerged, which reads: “No woman has ever left the royal family with her head, and the [sic] cannot behead me, therefore they will discredit me.”

Political editor David Maddox reports:

Kemi Badenoch is considering forcing a vote to release the documents on the vetting Peter Mandelson received ahead of being appointed ambassador to the US in January last year.

The appointment came despite warnings from the Donald Trump administration over Mandelson’s links to China and the convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The Independent also revealed that MI6 and the security agencies did not pass Mandelson in the vetting process with concerns also raised by them about China and Epstein.

The Tories have an opposition vote tomorrow and are now understood to be considering a vote on disclosing the vetting documents to provide transparency on why Sir Keir Starmer and his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney pushed the appointment through.

Lord Mandelson has insisted Jeffrey Epstein’s money did not influence his actions in office.

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.

“There was non-stop discussion from the entire industry about reforming the banks and how to strike the right balance in regulation,” Lord Mandelson said.

“The idea that giving Reinaldo an osteopath bursary is going to sway mine or anyone else’s views about banking policy is risible.”

The peer 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.

Senior reporter Alex Ross reports:

As Lord Mandelson faces ever-increasing scrutiny over his dealings with Jeffrey Epstein, more is still emerging from the files released by the US Department of Justice on Friday.

One email has surfaced suggesting the peer asked Epstein’s team for assistance in finding a car during a visit to Boston in 2012 – and he refused it.

It was four years after Epstein had served 13 months of an 18-month sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor, for which he was registered as a sex offender.

In the email to Epstein from his assistant, Lesley Groff, dated 29 May 2012, she says: “Peter Mandelson is asking that I help him with a car service in Boston. I can book him the car with the company we always use…. Did you want to pay for the car?”

Epstein replied eight minutes later: “No.”

It is not clear why Lord Mandelson wanted help with a car in Boston, in Massachusetts. Two days after the email, the annual Bilderberg conference in Chantilly in Virginia started, at which the peer reportedly attended.

The event, a gathering of global business leaders and politicians, ran from 31 May to 3 June 2012.