Mandelson to face police grilling over Epstein scandal ‘within days’ | Politics | News
It is understood police officers may question Peter Mandelson within a few days as part of the criminal investigation.
The 72-year-old former Labor member is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police over emails showing he leaked confidential government information to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Officers are examining the relationship between the two men during the 2008 financial crisis and have examined review documents relating to his appointment as Britain’s ambassador to the US in 2024.
Downing Street had planned to publish investigation documents on Wednesday in a bid to exonerate Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and show that Lord Mandelson lied to him about his friendship with Epstein.
But the Met has asked No 10 to delay releasing the files so as not to undermine its investigation.
Government officials fear the investigation could drag on for weeks, putting further pressure on Sir Keir and his embattled chief of staff Morgan McSweeney.
A Labor MP said Sir Keir appeared “totally oblivious to how the public felt” and anticipated Lord Mandelson’s claim that he had no reason not to believe it would “come back to haunt him”.
Speaking anonymously to the Press Association, the MP said: “The fact that the Prime Minister went about this event today as if it were business as usual made him appear completely unaware of how the public felt.
“And his comments to the press that he had no reason to distrust Mandelson made matters worse for him and he will come after him again.”
It comes after Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) said it could not commit to a timetable for examining documents relating to Lord Mandelson’s review to become US ambassador.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, the committee said it would act “as always, completely independently of the Government” in deciding whether certain documents should be withheld for national security reasons.
The ISC said: “This should be a matter for the committee alone – and it is clearly not possible for the committee to decide this without seeing the documents, or indeed to commit to any timetable until we know the extent of the task at hand.”
The letter, which asked the government to specify a date by which it would send the material to the committee, said ministers must provide a “clear and reasonable justification” as to why the publication of any document would be “harmful to UK national security or international relations”.
