Starmer to chair Cabinet as police assess reports after Mandelson allegations

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is set to chair Cabinet as police assess accusations that Lord Mandelson leaked sensitive information from the heart of government to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The Metropolitan Police are reviewing reports of alleged misconduct in a public office after millions of pages were released as part of the so-called Epstein files.

It comes after files released by the US Department of Justice apparently showed Lord Mandelson passing information to Epstein while the peer was a cabinet minister in Gordon Brown’s government.

The Prime Minister has called for his former ambassador to Washington to quit the Lords, with Downing Street saying Sir Keir believes he should “not be a member… or use the title”.

He has tasked the country’s top civil servant with carrying out a review.

The documents indicate Epstein was sent details of internal discussions from the heart of the UK government after the global financial crisis.

Lord Mandelson, the then-business secretary, 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.

Bank statements from 2003 and 2004 appeared to show he received payments totalling 75,000 US dollars from the financier, and Epstein is also said to have paid for an osteopathy course for Lord Mandelson’s husband.

The Metropolitan Police said on Monday they had received “a number of reports relating to alleged misconduct in a public office” after the files were released and that they would be reviewed to determine if they meet the criminal threshold for investigation.

A Government spokesperson said: “It is rightly for the police to determine whether to investigate and the Government stands ready to provide whatever support and assistance the police need.”

Downing Street earlier said Sir Keir had asked Cabinet Secretary Sir Chris Wormald to conduct “an urgent review” looking at “all available information regarding Mandelson’s contacts with Epstein during his period as a government minister”.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown said he had asked Sir Chris to investigate the disclosure of “confidential and market sensitive information” during the global financial crisis.

Nick Macpherson, former permanent secretary to the Treasury, suggested in a social media post that then-chancellor Alistair Darling had suspicions about leaks at the time.

“Alistair Darling and the official Treasury were always aware that investment banks had an inside track to Number 10. But the brazen nature of that inside track is rather breath-taking,” he posted on BlueSky.

Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Prime Minister, told the Commons on Monday that Lord Mandelson “must account for his actions and conduct”.

He said the information emerging in recent days had been unknown to both the Labour Party and the Government before the files were released.

“It is an understatement to say that his decision to continue a close relationship with a convicted paedophile, including discussing private government business, falls far below the standards expected of any minister,” he said.

On Sunday night, Lord Mandelson resigned his Labour membership and said he has “no record or recollection” of alleged financial payments made to him by Epstein.

Though this means he is still a peer, he has been on leave from the House of Lords since he took up his post in Washington, and reportedly has no plans to return.

On Monday evening, Privy councillors Dame Emily Thornberry, Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury, and SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn both called for Lord Mandelson to be removed from the Privy Council.

Asked on the BBC’s Newsnight programme whether he should remain on the council, both replied “no”, but Mr Flynn said he had “no idea” of what the process for Lord Mandelson’s potential removal would entail.

Lord Mandelson suggested he did not want to fully exit public life in an interview with The Times, saying that “hiding under a rock would be a disproportionate response to a handful of misguided historical emails, which I deeply regret sending”.

He told the newspaper that none of the recent download of Epstein files “indicate wrongdoing or misdemeanour on my part”.

Elsewhere, the King has been urged to contact lawyers representing a woman who claims to have been sent to the UK by Epstein for a sexual encounter with his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

The former prince has also featured in the documents on a number of occasions, including images which appear to show him crouched over an unidentified woman who is lying on the floor.

Meanwhile, Sarah Ferguson’s international charity, Sarah’s Trust, announced it would close for the foreseeable future.

And in the US, a spokesman for former president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary said the couple were willing to comply with a congressional subpoena for their testimony in a House investigation into Epstein.