Former UK ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson is facing a fixed-penalty notice after being caught urinating in public outside the London home of former chancellor George Osborne. The incident occurred in November last year, shortly after Mandelson was sacked from his Washington post over his ties to convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea intends to issue a £300 fine, reduced to £150 if paid within 14 days. However, officials have yet to do so because they are still trying to locate Mandelson's address, five months after the event.
Mandelson had visited Osborne for dinner following his removal from the ambassadorial role. Photographs published by the Daily Mail show him urinating at around 11pm, having arrived three hours earlier with a bottle of Chilean wine. At the time, he offered 'profuse apologies', telling the paper: 'There is no disguising my embarrassment.'
In a later interview with the Times, Mandelson blamed Uber for the incident, saying two cars cancelled on him, leaving him 'bursting for a pee'. He questioned how a photographer managed to capture him arriving and still be present at 11pm.
Mandelson has faced scrutiny since files from the Epstein case showed he stayed in touch with the financier after his 2008 conviction. Documents suggest he passed confidential government information to Epstein while serving as business secretary under Gordon Brown. Mandelson was arrested in February on suspicion of leaking Downing Street emails and market-sensitive information but denies wrongdoing and has not been charged.
