Former Labour minister and UK ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson is facing a fixed-penalty notice after being photographed urinating in public outside the London home of former chancellor George Osborne. The incident occurred in November, shortly after Mandelson was sacked from his Washington post due to his association with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea has indicated it intends to issue a £300 fixed-penalty notice, reduced to £150 if paid within 14 days. However, officials have yet to deliver the notice because they are still trying to locate Mandelson's address, five months after the event.
Mandelson had visited Osborne for dinner, arriving with a bottle of Chilean wine at around 8pm. He was seen urinating at about 11pm. He offered "profuse apologies" to the Daily Mail, which first published the photographs, saying: "There is no disguising my embarrassment." In a later interview with the Times, he blamed Uber for the incident, noting that two cars cancelled on him, leaving him "bursting for a pee".
The incident adds to Mandelson's recent legal troubles. He was arrested in late February at his London home as part of an investigation into alleged leaks of Downing Street emails and market-sensitive information. The arrest followed a tipoff from Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle that Mandelson planned to flee to the British Virgin Islands. Police later released him without charge, deciding he was not a flight risk.
Mandelson's lawyers stated: "Our client did not and does not pose a flight risk and will continue to cooperate with the police investigation." Mandelson has denied any wrongdoing in the leak investigation.
