House of Lords should strip Mandelson of peerage, says Starmer | Peter Mandelson

Peter Mandelson should resign from the House of Lords and the upper house must urgently modernize its disciplinary procedures to strip him of his rank, Keir Starmer has suggested.

The cabinet secretary, the UK’s most senior civil servant, will also investigate Mandelson’s actions as business secretary when Labor was last in power, after emails sent to Jeffrey Epstein about government policy emerged.

Downing Street has said that if Mandelson is called to testify ahead of the US Congress’s investigation into the Epstein files, he should do so after another huge chunk of documents were released over the weekend.

Mandelson was sacked as the UK’s ambassador to Washington last year after new details emerged about his relationship with the convicted sex offender. He resigned as a member of the Labor Party on Sunday night, saying he did so to avoid causing “further embarrassment” following further revelations about his friendship with Epstein. The worker said that disciplinary proceedings had already been initiated against him.

Starmer’s official spokesman told reporters in a briefing on Monday: “The Prime Minister has asked for this matter to be addressed urgently. The Prime Minister believes that Peter Mandelson should not be a member of the House of Lords or use that title.”

“But the prime minister has no power to lift it. He calls on the Lords to work with the government to modernize disciplinary procedures in the house and ensure that Lords who bring the house into disrepute are more easily removed.”

The current law on the removal of a peer has not been used since World War I, and the government believes that using this law to strip Mandelson of his peerage would be too complicated.

Government insiders hope the senior politician will choose to withdraw from the Lords voluntarily but will nevertheless quickly change the disciplinary process.

Downing Street said the prime minister had asked his cabinet secretary, Chris Wormald, to review all available information about Mandelson’s contacts with Epstein while he was a government minister and report back to him.

Emails released on Friday showed Mandelson, then business secretary in Gordon Brown’s government, assuring Epstein in December 2009 that he was “trying hard” to change government policy on bankers’ bonuses at his request.

In a December 15, 2009, email exchange with redacted addresses, Epstein asked Mandelson if the policy could be changed, writing: “Can any changes be made?” [sic] chance to pay tax only on the cash portion of the banker’s bonus.” Mandelson replied: “I’m trying to fix it, as I explained to Jes last night. “The treasure is digging, but I’m ready.”

Mandelson also appeared to have leaked to Epstein a sensitive UK government document, while he was business secretary, proposing £20 billion in asset sales and outlining Labour’s tax policy plans.

The confidential memo was written by Nick Butler, then special counsel to Brown, on June 13, 2009, and was released by the U.S. Department of Justice as part of millions of files on Epstein.

Starmer’s spokesman also said that if Mandelson is called to testify about Epstein before the US Congress, he should. The files disclosed over the weekend led the prime minister to decide to take further steps.

“The Prime Minister has always said that anyone with information should be prepared to share that information in any way they are asked, because you cannot be victim-centred if you are not prepared to do that,” he said.

During his visit to China last week, Starmer said Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor should testify to Congress but had “nothing else to add” about Mandelson.

When Downing Street appointed the former Labor ambassador, it was aware that making him ambassador to the US was a high-risk, high-reward strategy, but it could not have foreseen that he would fall out of favor so quickly.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the Cabinet Office should launch a full investigation into Mandelson’s links to Epstein and the process surrounding his appointment as US ambassador.

Documents relating to Epstein released by the US Department of Justice on Friday showed the disgraced financier sent $75,000 (£54,725) to the then Labor MP. Bank statements show three separate payments of $25,000 sent from Epstein’s JP Morgan bank accounts to the former British business secretary.

Correspondence showed that Mandelson’s husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, successfully asked the financier to pay him £10,000 in September 2009 to fund an osteopathy course and other expenses. Mandelson said he did not recall the funds requested or offered.

On Sunday evening, Mandelson resigned as a member of the Labor Party, saying he did so to avoid causing “further embarrassment” following further revelations about his friendship with Epstein.

Disciplinary proceedings have already been launched to expel him from the party in the wake of the Epstein scandal, a Labor Party spokesman said on Monday.

“It is true that Peter Mandelson is no longer a member of the Labor Party. A disciplinary hearing was ongoing before his resignation. Jeffrey Epstein’s disgusting crimes have devastated the lives of many women and girls and our thoughts remain with his victims,” ​​they said.

Badenoch said Starmer’s decision to allow Mandelson to resign his membership of the Labor Party was another failure. He said: “We need a full Cabinet investigation into how Mandelson and her husband received money from pedophile Jeffrey Epstein when he was Labor Secretary and why Mandelson was appointed ambassador.

“Keir Starmer told me that he had complete confidence in Peter Mandelson before sacking him as ambassador. The Prime Minister has consistently looked the other way when it comes to Mandelson’s past, even avoiding proper scrutiny. Just yesterday, he allowed Mandelson to resign his membership of the Labor Party rather than take action.

“If Starmer does not have the backbone to order this investigation, then it will become much clearer that he took responsibility for bringing Mandelson back into British public life despite knowing about his relationship with Epstein.”

Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said Starmer should introduce a bill that would strip Mandelson of his nobility; this was the only method of removing a peer. “It is now time for the government to take urgent action by passing legislation to strip Peter Mandelson of his nobility,” Davey said. “This is the least they can do for the victims and survivors of his friend Jeffrey Epstein.

“If Mandelson has any shame left, he will retire from the House of Lords today while this process continues.”

His colleague, who was sacked from his post as US ambassador last year over his links to Epstein, said: “Allegations that I believe to be false that he made financial payments to me 20 years ago, of which I have no record or recollection, need to be investigated by me.

“I do not want to cause further embarrassment to the Labor Party by doing this and therefore I am resigning from the party.”