Swinney condemns ‘absurdity’ of Mandelson remaining in House of Lords

Scotland’s First Minister has condemned the “absurdity” of Lord Peter Mandelson remaining as a peer despite being removed as UK ambassador to the United States.

John Swinney spoke out ahead of action at Westminster by his party to try to force the former UK Government minister’s removal from House of Lords.

The SNP will table a Removal of Peerages Bill on Tuesday, in a move the party hopes will see Lord Mandelson stripped of his title.

Speaking ahead of the move, SNP leader Mr Swinney said: “There is an absurdity at the heart of the fact that Peter Mandelson was removed as the ambassador to the United States but can still, in the same circumstances, participate in the House of Lords.

“That’s an absurdity that the SNP team at Westminster are trying to resolve.”

Tuesday’s Bill will be tabled by SNP MP Kirsty Blackman, who said: “It is shameful Keir Starmer is choosing to keep Peter Mandelson as a Labour Party peer despite his close association with convicted sex offender and paedophile, Jeffrey Epstein.”

Ms Blackman insisted: “Pressure is building on Starmer to finally act after Lord Mandelson’s insulting and utterly shameless BBC interview in which he refused to apologise to the victims and cynically sought to rehabilitate himself while failing to take any responsibility.”

She spoke out after Lord Mandelson declined to apologise to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims for remaining friends with the paedophile financier.

In his first broadcast interview since being sacked from his diplomatic role in Washington last September, the peer said he was “not culpable” for Epstein’s behaviour and was “not knowledgeable for what he was doing”.

However, Lord Mandelson said he would “regret to my dying day, the fact that powerless women were not given the protection they were entitled to expect”.

Ms Blackman added it “beggars belief that Keir Starmer is still failing to act” against the former ambassador.

She claimed the Prime Minister was also “insulting victims further by making Matthew Doyle a Labour Party peer despite his own association with a sex offender”.

The SNP has already said making Sir Keir Starmer’s former communications chief a lord is “wholly indefensible” because of his links to former Labour councillor Sean Morton, who admitted having indecent images of children in 2017.

Ms Blackman said: “Keir Starmer must finally do the right thing and strip Mandelson and Doyle of their Labour Party peerages, or it will be another nail in the coffin for his failed time as Prime Minister.”