Lord Mandelson is facing calls for a criminal investigation into his actions after the Jeffrey Epstein files suggest he leaked highly market sensitive information to the convicted paedophile while serving in the last Labour government.
MPs from across the political divide, including Labour, Tories, the SNP, Reform and the Liberal Democrats have called on the Metropolitan Police to investigate whether Mandelson had potentially committed misconduct in public office.
The Metropolitan Police said it had received a number of reports, which would be reviewed to determine if they meet the criminal threshold for investigation.
It comes after the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer demanded the disgraced peer give up his title and resign from the House of Lords as he launched a review into the former ambassador’s correspondence with Epstein.
The latest release of Epstein files by the US Department of Justice suggest that Mandelson secretly leaked market sensitive information in 2010 that Gordon Brown, the prime minister at the time, was to resign hours before it was made public.
On May 9 2010, in the last days of Brown’s government, Mandelson is also alleged to have given Epstein advance notice that the European Union was about to announce a €500bn bailout for the Euro.
The files suggest Epstein emailed Mandelson saying: “Sources tell me 500 b euro bailout, almost complete.”
A later reply, from a redacted address or number, said: “sd [SIC] be announced tonight”. A massive rescue package was agreed by Brussels in the early hours of May 10.
Earlier emails in 2009 suggest Mandelson sent Epstein No10 memos drafted for Brown on plans to introduce a new policy to sell £20bn of government assets in order to go into the next election with promises not to increase the top rate of income tax or corporation tax in the next parliament.
A reply from Epstein reads: “What salable [SIC] assets”, with a reply from a redacted email address saying “land, property I guess”.
Nick Butler, Brown’s former adviser in No10 who drafted the memo on the assets sales plan, told The i Paper that he was taking advice on whether to support any possible criminal investigation into Mandelson.
He expressed his support for Brown’s calls for an inquiry into the correspondence, and questioned whether notes of “far more importance” may have found their way into Epstein’s hands.
Mandelson has been approached for comment.
Met Police Commander Ella Marriott confirmed the force had received “a number of reports relating to misconduct in public office”.
“The reports will all be reviewed to determine if they meet the criminal threshold for investigation,” she said.
“As with any matter, if new and relevant information is brought to our attention we will assess it, and investigate as appropriate.”
Allegations about the correspondence came after bank statements from 2003 and 2004 appeared to show Lord Mandelson received payments totalling 75,000 US dollars (£54,000) from the financier.
Epstein is also said to have paid for an osteopathy course for Lord Mandelson’s husband in 2009.
Labour MPs were last night lining up to criticise the Government’s decision to hand Mandelson the position of UK Ambassador to the US last year, with chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee Emily Thornberry questioning whether the police should be involved.
Her comments were echoed by Labour backbencher Peter Prinsley, who said the sharing of emails between Mandelson and Epstein looked like “political insider trading on a grand scale”, and asked whether ministers would support “not only an independent inquiry but a criminal investigation”.
Downing Street said the Prime Minister had asked Cabinet Secretary Sir Chris Wormald to conduct “an urgent review” looking at “all available information regarding Mandelson’s contacts with Epstein during his period as a government minister”.
Starmer does not have the power to strip Mandelson of his peerage, which would require primary legislation. Instead, the Prime Minister has urged the Lords to work with the Government to modernise disciplinary procedures to make it easier to remove disgraced peers.
Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones said the Government was writing to the appropriate authorities to start the process on Monday.
Former prime minister Brown said he had asked Sir Chris to investigate the disclosure of “confidential and market sensitive information” during the global financial crisis.
Brown said he was told that the inquiry resulted in no departmental record being found on the issue, but he has now asked Wormald to look again.
He said that given the “shocking new information that has come to light … including information about the transfer to Mr Epstein of at least one highly sensitive government document as well as other highly confidential information, I have now written to ask for a wider and more intensive enquiry to take place into the wholly unacceptable disclosure of government papers.”
But Labour MPs were demanding to know why Downing Street had failed to launch a full investigation into Mandelson when he was forced to resign last year over an earlier set of Epstein files.
One senior Labour MP told The i Paper: “It just feels like we should have got to the bottom of this earlier?”
On Sunday night, Lord Mandelson resigned his Labour membership and the party revealed he had been facing a disciplinary process.
In his letter, he said: “Allegations which I believe to be false that he made financial payments to me 20 years ago, and of which I have no record or recollection, need investigating by me.
“While doing this I do not wish to cause further embarrassment to the Labour Party and I am therefore stepping down from membership of the party.”
Lord Mandelson was sacked as the ambassador to Washington last year after details emerged of his continued contact with the financier after Epstein’s guilty plea in 2008 to soliciting prostitution and soliciting a minor.
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