The U.K. government said Wednesday it will release documents related to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the United States, a decision prompted by rising anger over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and renewed scrutiny after U.S. government files about Epstein were made public.
The announcement came after Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced questions from opposition lawmakers and some within his Labour Party about how the government handled the background of a former minister later fired as ambassador. Starmer said he had known at the time of Mandelson’s 2024 appointment about Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein, but added that he did not understand the depth of the relationship. At the same time, Starmer said Mandelson “lied repeatedly” to his team when asked about his relationship with Epstein before and during his ambassadorial tenure.
“Mandelson betrayed our country, our Parliament and my party,” Starmer told lawmakers, adding, “I regret appointing him. If I knew then what I know now, he would never have been anywhere near government.” Starmer also said he would ensure “all of the material” is published, while withholding documents that could compromise Britain’s national security, international relations or an ongoing police investigation.
As anger grew in Parliament, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the government should publish all relevant files rather than only those Starmer wanted released. The debate reflected concerns from lawmakers across parties that “national security” could be used as a reason to keep embarrassing records out of the public view. The situation escalated to a point where opposition lawmakers sought a parliamentary vote calling for the release of emails and other documentation connected to Mandelson’s appointment.
After hours of House of Commons debate, a vote was averted when the government agreed that the Intelligence and Security Committee—an all-party group of parliamentarians—would decide which papers should be published, rather than leaving that determination to a senior civil servant as Starmer had proposed. It remains unclear when the documents will be released.
The renewed controversy follows a set of documents released last week by the U.S. Justice Department connected to Epstein. According to those files, Mandelson may have shared sensitive information with Epstein when Mandelson was a government minister about 15 years earlier. The AP report said that in 2009 Mandelson appeared to tell Epstein he would lobby other government officials to reduce a tax on bankers’ bonuses and passed on an internal government report concerning a potential sale of U.K. government assets, and that the following year Mandelson appeared to tip Epstein about an imminent bailout involving the euro.
The U.S. files also described payments involving Epstein, according to the report, including three transfers totaling $75,000 to accounts linked to Mandelson or to his partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva, now Mandelson’s husband, in 2003-2004. The documents also prompted Starmer’s criticism of Mandelson’s conduct, and the wider political fallout, including Mandelson’s resignation from the House of Lords and the start of a police investigation into alleged misconduct in public office.
Opening an investigation does not mean Mandelson will be arrested, charged or convicted. London’s Metropolitan Police urged the government not to release “certain documents” that it said could undermine its investigation. Starmer also said his government was working on legislation to remove the noble title of Lord Mandelson and that Mandelson would be removed from the Privy Council for bringing “the reputation of the Privy Council into disrepute.”
The scrutiny is not limited to the U.K. European Union officials said they are investigating potential wrongdoing by Mandelson when he served as trade commissioner for the bloc between 2004 and 2008, when the U.K. was an EU member. European Commission spokesperson Balazs Ujvari said the Commission would be assessing whether, in light of the newly available documents, there might be breaches of rules that apply to commissioners under the treaty and code of conduct.
Starmer’s disclosure plan, and the parliamentary decision over which documents can be made public, unfold against a backdrop of continuing legal and political pressure that has kept the Mandelson-Epstein issue at the center of U.K. political debate. MSI previously reported that Starmer faced resignation calls after Mandelson failed security vetting for the ambassador role in a related story.