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The Speaker of Britain’s upper house of Parliament has announced that Lord Peter Mandelson is leaving the House of Lords, as anger grows across the political world over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
The former Labor cabinet minister and Britain’s ambassador to Washington will no longer be a peer from midnight.
Lord Forsyth, Speaker of the House of Lords, told the chamber on Tuesday that Mandelson had “notified his intention to retire from the House with effect from 4 February”.
Mandelson was under pressure over revelations that while business secretary he had given government documents to notorious sex offender Epstein, from whom he took $75,000.
Earlier on Tuesday, Downing Street said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had instructed officials to draft legislation to remove Mandelson from the upper house of parliament as soon as possible.
Mandelson, who is on leave from Lord’s, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FT first reported that Mandelson was set to step down.
Downing Street said Starmer found it “ridiculous” that primary legislation was required to expel “criminals” from the upper house of the UK Parliament, a process last implemented in 1917.
His spokesman said there was a need to reform the system to ensure that the House of Lords would no longer be a place from which no person could be dismissed.
The Prime Minister is open to various options about how to proceed with reforming the system, including whether to formally strip Mandelson of his title.
Earlier in the day Starmer told his cabinet that Mandelson had “let his country down”, and said the peer’s alleged disclosure of sensitive government information was “disgraceful”.
The Metropolitan Police said on Monday it would review charges against Mandelson after receiving “numerous reports relating to alleged misconduct in public office” arising from the Epstein scandal.
Downing Street confirmed that the Cabinet Office, on its own initiative, had passed the material to the police for review.
Authorities have assigned strict management controls around the evaluation of some of Mandelson’s emails in the Epstein files and the sensitive information they contain.
This includes market-sensitive information on the 2008 financial crash and its aftermath, which was only shared with people working in an official capacity, with strict controls in place to prevent it falling into the hands of people who could potentially benefit financially from it, Number 10 said.
Emails contained in a US Justice Department data dump show Mandelson giving Epstein details of the Eurozone’s €500 billion bailout, and a Downing Street memo showing secret plans for a £20 billion asset sale and tax changes.
On Tuesday the FT revealed that Mandelson lobbied the US government on behalf of Epstein and JPMorgan’s Jess Staley in 2010 when he was a UK minister, and used her words in talks with a US official about financial crisis reforms.
According to DoJ files, Epstein sent $75,000 to Mendelson in 2003 and 2004. Mendelson’s partner at the time and now husband received money from Epstein in 2009 and 2010.
Mandelson has said she has no recollection of the $75,000, although she has since confirmed the Epstein payment to her husband.
Sir Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, has called for a full statutory investigation into how the convicted pedophile was able to “gain access to the heart of the British political establishment”.
