By Anietie anii-bassey
British police are reviewing whether former senior Labour Party figure Peter Mandelson should face a criminal investigation following the release of U.S. court documents that appear to show he shared sensitive government information with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The developments have sent shockwaves through British politics and prompted the government to explore ways to expel Mandelson from Parliament and strip him of his lifetime peerage, which gives him the title Lord Mandelson and a seat in the House of Lords.
Once one of the most powerful strategists in modern Labour history, the 72-year-old served in multiple Cabinet roles and was Britain’s ambassador to Washington until his dismissal in September over previously disclosed ties to Epstein.
More than three million pages of Epstein-related material recently made public by the U.S. Justice Department have cast new scrutiny on Mandelson’s relationship with the financier, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
The newly released files include emails, financial records and text messages that critics say raise serious questions about whether Mandelson improperly disclosed internal government deliberations.
British law-enforcement officials said Tuesday they are assessing allegations of misconduct “to determine if they meet the criminal threshold for investigation.”
Among the most damaging revelations are banking records suggesting that between 2003 and 2004 Epstein sent three payments totaling $75,000 to accounts linked either to Mandelson or to his partner, Reinaldo Avila da Silva.
Mandelson has said he does not recall receiving such funds and has questioned the authenticity of the documents, but he resigned from the Labour Party over the weekend, saying he did not want to cause it “further embarrassment.”
Emails indicate that Mandelson continued to communicate with Epstein even after the financier pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida state charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution and served an 18-month sentence in jail.
In 2009, Epstein transferred 10,000 pounds to da Silva to cover the cost of an osteopathy course. Mandelson later told a British newspaper that, “in retrospect, it was clearly a lapse in our collective judgment for Reinaldo to accept this offer.”
That same year, while serving as business secretary, Mandelson appears in correspondence to have told Epstein he would lobby colleagues in government about lowering a tax on bankers’ bonuses, a highly sensitive political issue in the wake of the global financial crisis.
Another message shows Mandelson forwarding Epstein an internal report outlining potential ways for Britain to raise revenue, including selling state assets, writing that it was an “interesting note that’s gone to the PM.”
In 2010, Mandelson sent Epstein a message stating that “sources tell me 500 b euro bailout” was nearly complete — dated the very day European governments announced a €500 billion rescue package aimed at stabilizing the eurozone. Critics argue that the timing and nature of the communications suggest access to confidential discussions that should not have been shared outside government.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has ordered an urgent review by the civil service into every contact Mandelson had with Epstein while holding public office, seeking to establish whether any laws or ethical rules were breached. The inquiry is expected to examine correspondence, travel records and financial links stretching back years.
Senior political figures have reacted with alarm. Harriet Harman, a former Cabinet colleague, said she had long harbored doubts about Mandelson’s character but was stunned by what the documents appear to show.
“I could never have believed that Gordon Brown, having appointed him to the Cabinet, that he would sit in that Cabinet and leak information whilst the government was struggling to protect the country from the global financial crisis,” she said.
Epstein’s death in a New York jail cell in 2019 ended criminal proceedings against him but did little to halt investigations into his network of wealthy and influential associates. The latest disclosures have reignited scrutiny on figures across politics and business on both sides of the Atlantic.
Mandelson has not yet publicly responded to the newest allegations. A request for comment was sent to him through the House of Lords as pressure mounted in Westminster for clearer answers about his dealings with Epstein and the extent to which confidential government material may have been compromised.
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