Keir Starmer has handed a dossier on Peter Mandelson to the police and will legislate to strip the disgraced former minister of his peerage, after reports that he leaked market-sensitive information to Jeffrey Epstein at the height of the financial crisis.
Starmer told his cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning he was “appalled” by the reported leaks and had also asked officials to draft legislation to strip Mandelson of his peerage “as quickly as possible”. The Cabinet Office has sent the Metropolitan police details about emails from the then-business secretary to the child sex offender.
The prime minister is said to have told his cabinet he believed there may be more scandals yet to be uncovered within the cache of emails released in the Epstein files, saying he was “not reassured that the totality of the information had yet emerged”. Starmer’s spokesperson said the prime minister had told cabinet that Mandelson had “let his country down”.
Fresh disclosures from the Epstein files appear to show Mandelson sent a string of emails to the late financier containing confidential information that the government was receiving to deal with the global crash while he was business secretary under Gordon Brown. Starmer’s spokesperson said the Cabinet Office was reviewing all information it had regarding the documents but an initial review of the Epstein files released on Friday by the US Department of Justice found “they contain likely market sensitive information surrounding the 2008 financial crash and the official activities thereafter to stabilise the economy”.
The prime minister has asked officials to draft legislation to strip Mandelson of his peerage – the first time that would have occurred since 1917. “The prime minister believes there is a broader need for the House of Lords to be able to remove transgressors more quickly,” Starmer’s spokesperson said. “The prime minister regards it as ridiculous that a peerage cannot be removed except with primary legislation, something that has not happened since 1917.”
The European Commission also said on Tuesday it would look into whether Mandelson had broken its code of conduct while he was EU commissioner between 2004 and 2008. Mandelson appears to have been sent three separate payments of $25,000 (£18,000) by Epstein in 2003 and 2004, though the peer said he had no recollection of the payments.
