British politician Peter Mandelson faces pressure to quit House of Lords
over Jeffrey Epstein ties
[February 03, 2026]
By JILL LAWLESS
LONDON (AP) — A year ago, Peter Mandelson was Britain’s ambassador to
Washington, the latest high-profile post in a rocky but consequential
political career.
Friendship with Jeffrey Epstein cost him that job. Now, after new
revelations, Mandelson — like other powerful men including King Charles
III's brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — is facing new demands he come
clean about his relationship with the late sex offender.
Mandelson resigned from the governing Labour Party on Sunday following
new claims he received payments from Epstein two decades ago. Mandelson
said he was stepping aside to avoid causing “further embarrassment,”
even as he denied the allegations stemming from a trove of more than 3
million pages of documents relating to Epstein released by the U.S.
Department of Justice.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who fired Mandelson from his ambassadorial
job over earlier revelations about his Epstein ties, is now urging him
to quit politics altogether and testify in the U.S. about what he knew
of the financier's activities.
Opposition politicians, joined by some lawmakers from the governing
Labour Party, called for police to investigate claims Mandelson gave
Epstein sensitive government information. The Metropolitan Police force
said it had received “a number of reports relating to alleged misconduct
in a public office” and would review them "to determine if they meet the
criminal threshold for investigation.”
Starmer urged Mandelson on Monday to resign from his lifetime seat in
the House of Lords — Parliament's upper chamber of appointed
politicians, donors and assorted notables — and to give up his noble
title, Lord Mandelson.
The alternative if he does not go willingly would be a lengthy process
requiring Parliament to pass legislation — a process last undertaken
more than a century ago to remove the titles of aristocrats who sided
with Germany in World War I.
“The prime minister believes that Peter Mandelson should not be a member
of the House of Lords or use the title,” said Starmer spokesman Tom
Wells. “However, the prime minister does not have the power to remove
it.”
Mandelson — like Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew — is also
facing calls to testify about Epstein in the U.S.
Cabinet minister Steve Reed said Monday that both men have a “moral
obligation” to share any information that could help Epstein’s victims.
Epstein died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on
U.S. federal charges accusing him of sexually abusing dozens of girls.
Years before he had avoided federal prosecution by pleading guilty to
state charges in Florida of solicitation of prostitution involving a
minor and another charge.
New allegations about ties to Epstein
The latest release of Epstein files includes hundreds of text and email
messages exchanged between Mandelson and the financier, revealing the
British politician's warm relationship with the man he called “my best
pal” in 2003.
Several documents seem to refer to payments from Epstein to Mandelson or
his partner, Reinaldo Avila da Silva. What appear to be bank statements
from 2003 and 2004 suggest an Epstein account sent three payments
totaling $75,000 to accounts connected to Mandelson.
Mandelson has questioned the authenticity of the bank statements. In a
letter to Labour resigning from the party, Mandelson said he had no
recollection of receiving that money and would investigate.
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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, right, talks with Britain's
ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson during a welcome
reception at the ambassador's residence on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025
in Washington. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP, file)
“While doing this I do not wish to cause further embarrassment to
the Labour Party and I am therefore stepping down from membership of
the party,” he wrote.
Mandelson added that he wanted to “repeat my apology to the women
and girls whose voices should have been heard long before now.”
Other documents suggest that in 2009 Epstein sent da Silva 10,000
pounds (about $13,650 at today's rates) to pay for an osteopathy
course.
The documents also include an email exchange from 2009 in which
Mandelson, then a U.K. government minister, appeared to tell Epstein
he would lobby other members of the government to reduce a tax on
bankers’ bonuses.
Documents also suggest Mandelson sent details of sensitive U.K.
government discussions to Epstein after the 2008 global financial
crisis.
Starmer on Monday ordered the civil service to conduct an “urgent”
review of all of Mandelson’s contacts with Epstein while he was in
government.
Also among the files is a photo of Mandelson in a shirt and
underwear, standing near an unidentified woman in a bathrobe.
A email requesting comment on the documents was sent to Mandelson
through the House of Lords.
The end of a turbulent career
Mandelson, 72, has been a major, if contentious, figure in the
center-left Labour Party for decades. He is a skilled — critics say
ruthless — political operator whose mastery of political intrigue
earned him the nickname “Prince of Darkness.”
The grandson of former Labour Cabinet minister Herbert Morrison, he
was an architect of the party’s return to power in 1997 as centrist,
modernizing “New Labour” under Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Mandelson served in senior government posts under Blair between 1997
and 2001, and under Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2008 to 2010.
In between, he was the European Union’s trade commissioner.
Mandelson twice had to resign from government during the Blair
administration over allegations of financial or ethical impropriety,
acknowledging mistakes but denying wrongdoing.
He later returned to government, and was back on the political front
line when Starmer named him to the key post of ambassador to
Washington at the start of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second
term. Mandelson’s trade expertise and comfort around the ultra-rich
were considered major assets with the administration. He helped
secure a trade deal in May that spared Britain some of the tariffs
Trump has imposed on countries around the world.
But Starmer fired him in September after emails were published
showing Mandelson's friendship with Epstein continued even after the
financier's 2008 guilty plea.
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