Mandelson to step down from House of Lords

Lord Mandelson is to step down from the House of Lords after it emerged he leaked confidential government emails to Jeffrey Epstein.

The peer bowed to pressure to quit the Upper Chamber after evidence of his leaks to the notorious paedophile was published in a release of more than three million files in the US last week.

Sir Keir Starmer faced calls from dozens of his own MPs to strip Lord Mandelson of his peerage.

The Prime Minister had instructed officials to draft a new law that would have allowed Lord Mandelson’s peerage to be removed as quickly as possible.

But the Government had refused to explore this until Tuesday lunchtime, citing the “complexity” that would be involved in such legislation.

Lord Mandelson still faces the possibility of a Met Police investigation into misconduct in public office.

The Labour peer, who was serving as business secretary in Gordon Brown’s cabinet, shared market-sensitive information with Epstein that the paedophile could have used to make money.

The disclosures included plans for a multibillion-pound EU bailout, Mr Brown’s resignation and the potential sale of government land and property.

In one email sent by Lord Mandelson to Epstein in 2009, the then business secretary forwarded an economic briefing for Mr Brown with the caption: “Interesting note that’s gone to the PM.”

The memo, which was written by Nick Butler, a special adviser, and began “Dear Gordon”, contained an assessment of the state of the economy in the wake of the financial crisis.

It contained a reference to the government having “saleable assets in hand”, and Epstein asked Lord Mandelson: “What saleable assets?” He replied: “Land, property I guess.”

Another email chain, sent by Jeremy Heywood, the then No 10 chief of staff, to Baroness Vadera, then business secretary, and copied to Lord Mandelson, was also leaked to Epstein. However, the name of the leaker is redacted in files released by the US department of justice.

Further emails from 2010 showed Lord Mandelson appearing to confirm to Epstein details of the EU’s €500bn bailout deal on May 9, several hours before it was publicly announced.

He also appeared to forward to Epstein an economic briefing note that had been sent Mr Brown earlier in the same year. While the note was unclassified, it related to Lord Mandelson’s role as business and trade secretary.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Cabinet Office confirmed it had sent the Metropolitan Police an assessment of how the emails were supposed to be kept confidential.

The Labour grandee has not lost his title, so will continue to be referred to as Lord Mandelson.

He resigned from the Labour Party on Sunday night, claiming that this was to avoid “further embarrassment” to Sir Keir and his colleagues.

Images of Lord Mandelson in his underwear were released as part of the latest tranche of the Epstein files last week.

He could be seen wearing what appears to be a pair of white Y-fronts and a T-shirt in a series of 11 images. He was pictured next to a woman in some of the images, whose face was redacted.

Shortly after Lord Mandelson resigned, a Labour spokesman claimed that internal disciplinary proceedings had been launched against him, although he declined to say when this was.

Last month, Lord Mandelson initially refused to apologise to victims of Epstein for maintaining their friendship after he was convicted of sex offences.

He argued that he was not culpable for any of Epstein’s criminal activity, and claimed that being gay meant he was kept in the dark about the full horror of his crimes.

However, this position lasted less than 48 hours until he issued a statement saying he was “truly sorry” that he had believed his friend over his victims.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]