Gordon Brown has asked the cabinet secretary to investigate Peter Mandelson's apparent disclosure of highly sensitive government information to Jeffrey Epstein while serving as business secretary during Brown's premiership. The former prime minister said he had written to Chris Wormald requesting a wider and more intensive inquiry into the unauthorised release of confidential and market-sensitive documents during the global financial crisis.
The request follows the release of thousands of files relating to Epstein by the US justice department, which showed that in June 2009 Mandelson forwarded a confidential economic briefing to Epstein, who was then serving a jail sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor. The email, sent by Brown's special adviser Nick Butler, outlined potential policy measures and suggested the government had saleable assets. Mandelson's covering note read: “Interesting note that's gone to the PM.” Epstein replied asking: “What salable (sic) assets?” A response from a redacted address said: “Land, property I guess.”
Butler, who authored the memo, said he was considering reporting the matter to the police. He told the Times: “We – that is all the people included on this email and many others – worked on the basis of trust, which allowed us to float ideas. I am disgusted by the breach of trust, presumably intended to give Epstein the chance to make money.”
Brown said he had previously asked Wormald to examine communications about the sale of assets between Mandelson and Epstein after an earlier release of documents, but was told “no departmental record could be found”. He now wants the results of the new inquiry published as soon as possible, saying: “Given the public interest in this, I have asked that the results of the inquiry be published and done so as soon as possible.”
The latest tranche of documents also shows that an analysis of business lending drawn up by minister Shriti Vadera in August 2009 was sent to Epstein, with Mandelson apparently involved in those discussions. Mandelson is also said to have lobbied ministers over a bankers' bonus tax in 2009 and confirmed an imminent euro bailout the day before it was announced in 2010. Keir Starmer has suggested Mandelson should resign from the House of Lords, while Mandelson quit the Labour Party on Sunday after being sacked as UK ambassador to Washington last year.
