Tuesday, February 03, 2026
Full investigation needed into Mandelson
It has been revealed that the former cabinet minister was apparently disclosing highly sensitive government information to Epstein over a significant period of time.
The Guardian says that Mandelson was business secretary during Brown’s premiership, when he appears to have leaked an economic briefing to Epstein, who was serving a jail sentence at the time for soliciting prostitution from a minor:
The latest tranche of documents released by authorities in the US show Epstein was sent internal discussions from the top of the UK government in the aftermath of the financial crash.
In the June 2009 email, which had been sent to Jeremy Heywood, the then No 10 chief of staff, and the business minister Shriti Vadera, Butler said: “A number of business leaders who understand financial engineering have asked in different ways why we are borrowing so much and tolerating such high debt charges when we have saleable assets in hand which are not strategic – i.e. there is no good political or economic reason why they are in the public sector.
“I know Jeremy [Heywood] has done some work on this.
“The point which the Tories appear to have missed in focusing the argument on cuts v spending is that asset sales of even £ 20bn would relieve the debt burden, reduce borrowing costs, and provide some funds for new investment.”
Another document released on Friday shows that an analysis of business lending drawn up by Vadera in August 2009 was also sent to Epstein. The sender of the email has been redacted, but Mandelson also appears to have been involved in the discussions.
Mandelson also appeared to tell Epstein he would lobby ministers over a tax on bankers’ bonuses in 2009, and to confirm an imminent bailout package for the euro the day before it was announced in 2010.
Downing Street said Starmer had asked Wormald to conduct “an urgent review” looking at “all available information regarding Mandelson’s contacts with Epstein during his period as a government minister”.
Brown’s special adviser Nick Butler, who drafted the memo, has indicated that he is considering reporting the matter to the police, while his former boss says he has asked the cabinet secretary to investigate the disclosure of confidential and market sensitive information from the then business department during the global financial crisis.
The Prime Minister meanwhile, has suggested that Mandelson should resign from the House of Lords and that the upper chamber should urgently modernise its disciplinary procedures to strip him of his peerage. In many ways this is another cop-out because of all those involved, Starmer has the power to introduce the necessary legislation to achieve this end.
Whatever happens next, there is no escaping the impression that it is all too little too late, and that successive Labour governments must accept responsibility for this mess.
