The UK’s political class has been rocked by a major scandal, and the man at the center of it has already been seen as the savior of the party currently in power in the country.
The name in question is that of Peter Mandelson, former British ambassador to the United States, who is credited with playing a fundamental role in creating the “modern version” of the Labor Party that brought Tony Blair to power in 1997.
Now, he faces a criminal investigation stemming from the United States Department of Justice’s latest release of materials relating to convicted sexual abuse tycoon Jeffrey Epstein.
Mandelson, 72, is accused of passing on confidential market information, of clear financial interest to Epstein, after the 2008 financial crisis.
Gordon Brown, British Prime Minister at the time, said on Tuesday (3) that he sent information relevant to the investigation to the police and harshly criticized Mandelson for his “inexcusable and unpatriotic” act.
The scandal might have had less impact if Mandelson — who had already been forced to resign twice from government due to his ties to wealthy individuals — had not been chosen by Prime Minister Keir Starmer to serve as British ambassador to Washington, despite his well-known friendship with Epstein.
Although Starmer after just seven months in Washington, due to the earlier disclosure of the Epstein Files, the Prime Minister’s decision to appoint him has turned into a crisis for his already weakened Labor government, one that could yet result in further political casualties.
Who is Peter Mandelson?
Nicknamed the “Prince of Darkness” for his Machiavellian approach to power, Mandelson became the Labor Party’s communications director in the 1980s.
He helped transform a party seen as hostage to the unions into the refined, market-friendly project known as “New Labour”, which went on to win a landslide victory in the 1997 election under Blair’s leadership.
Having helped propel the Labor Party to power, Mandelson was appointed “minister without portfolio”, which allowed him to attend cabinet meetings and gave him broad powers across the government.
But just over a year after taking office, he was forced to resign in 1998 for failing to declare a loan he obtained from a fellow millionaire to help him buy a house.
Despite being embroiled in controversy, he returned to government the following year as trade secretary, before resigning again in 2001 over allegations that he used his position to influence a wealthy donor’s application for a British passport.
Mandelson left the government and went to Brussels, where he served as European trade commissioner from 2004 to 2008. He returned a third time to help rebuild the Brown government, which was facing the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis, this time as business secretary.
After the Labor Party’s defeat in the 2010 general election, Mandelson spent more than a decade in the private sector. Last year, however, he was chosen by Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the position of British ambassador to the USA.
The decision was seen at the time as risky: Starmer wanted a political heavyweight to impose himself in President Donald Trump’s US. So he swapped Karen Pierce — a career diplomat seen as a safe choice — for the more volatile Mandelson.
When did the links to Epstein emerge?
Starmer’s decision proved disastrous within months.
In September 2025, the US Department of Justice released a book compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday from 2003, in which Mandelson wrote a handwritten note describing the mogul as “my best friend”. He was also photographed in a bathrobe sitting with Epstein.
The scandal escalated after the , in which the veteran Labor politician expressed support for his friend, despite the financier’s 2008 conviction for enticing a minor into prostitution.
“I have the greatest admiration for you and feel desperate and furious about what has happened,” Mandelson wrote. He counseled Epstein, suggesting he fight back using techniques from Sun Tzu’s “Art of War.”
Days before Trump’s second state visit to the UK, which Mandelson helped plan and in which he was expected to play a key role, Starmer fired him as ambassador.
The British Foreign Office told CNN at the time the emails showed that the “depth and extent” of his relationship with Epstein were “materially different from what was known at the time of his appointment.”
Trump, in turn, said on Tuesday (3) that “it is a shame” that Mandelson plans to resign from the British House of Lords.
“I didn’t know that. But — I don’t really know much about it. I know who he is. It’s a shame,” President Trump said while answering questions from reporters in the Oval Office of the White House.
What did the latest files reveal?
The recent release of files by the US Department of Justice shows that the depth and extent of the relationship between Mandelson and Epstein was even greater.
Among the documents is an email exchange from 2009 in which the Briton, while business secretary in Brown’s government, appears to have leaked to the tycoon details about policy measures the cabinet was considering following the 2008 financial crisis.
In another exchange from December 2009, Epstein and Mandelson discussed the UK’s plans to impose an additional tax on bankers’ bonuses as a punitive, one-off measure after the crisis.
Mandelson appears to have suggested that the chairman of JP Morgan Chase call Alistair Darling, then the British finance minister, and “mildly threaten” him. According to Darling’s memoir, published two years before his death in 2023, the call was made.
The Brit also appears to have informed Epstein that the European Union was planning a €500 billion bailout to prop up the euro, also as a result of the financial crisis.
Recently released bank statements also appear to show that between 2003 and 2004, Epstein deposited a total of $75,000 into bank accounts linked to Mandelson.
Email exchanges suggest the financier may have sent £10,000 to Reinaldo Avila da Silva, Mandelson’s husband, to help finance his osteopathy course.
A spokesman for Peter Mandelson told British media that neither the former ambassador nor da Silva “have any record or recollection of receiving payments in 2003 and 2004, nor do they know whether the documentation is authentic.” THE CNN was unable to contact Mandelson.
The latest batch of documents released also includes a photo of a man who appears to be Mandelson, in his underwear, next to a woman whose face has been obscured.
It is unclear when or where the images were taken, and no captions or context for the photographs were provided with the release of the documents. Furthermore, photography does not suggest any irregularity.
Mandelson told the BBC he “cannot identify the location or the woman and cannot imagine what the circumstances were.”
What happens now?
Dismissed as ambassador, Mandelson remained a member of the House of Lords, the Upper House of the British Parliament.
However, faced with the growing wave of protests this week, the president of the Chamber announced that Mandelson would resign from his position on Wednesday (4).
His problems don’t end there. The Metropolitan Police announced on Tuesday that it had launched an investigation into the former ambassador for alleged misconduct in public office.
Brown claimed to have provided the Metropolitan Police with information relevant to the investigation into Mandelson’s communications with Epstein.
The former prime minister said Mandelson’s alleged leak of information to Epstein was “an inexcusable and unpatriotic act at a time when the entire government and country were trying to deal with the global financial crisis that was damaging so many livelihoods.”
Amid the criminal investigation, British parliamentarians agreed to release documents relating to Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US, despite his links to Epstein.
“The timetable will be as brief as possible. We want to get on with it,” parliamentary secretary Chris Ward told the House of Commons on Wednesday, adding there was “a lot of material” to go through.
But the Metropolitan Police asked the government not to release the documents yet as it could “damage” the ongoing investigation.
Some of the documents MPs have requested to be released are those relating to the decision to appoint Mandelson and communications between him and Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s senior team in the six months before his appointment.
“Mandelson’s lies, venality and betrayal shame this House, me, the Prime Minister and I know that every MP around me has nothing but contempt for the way he acted and lied to the British people,” Ward told the House of Commons.
“I’m glad this will now be shown to the British people,” he added.
Case becomes a crisis for the British government
Mandelson’s latest scandal has created a huge political headache for Starmer. Opposition parties questioned the prime minister for appointing the politician as ambassador, despite his history of scandals.
“The scandal, the corruption and the speed of (Mandelson’s) downfall only increase the scrutiny on (Starmer’s) decision to send him to Washington,” said Kemi Badenoch, leader of the Conservative Party.
Nigel Farage, leader of the populist Reform UK party, which is mentioned 32 times in Epstein’s files, said Starmer made a “serious error of judgement” in appointing Mandelson as ambassador.
In Parliament on Wednesday, the prime minister said the latest revelations about Mandelson were “extremely revolting” and that the former ambassador had “repeatedly lied to my team when asked about his relationship with Epstein.”
“Mandelson betrayed our country, our Parliament and my party,” Starmer told MPs, adding: “I regret appointing him.”
Starmer highlighted that Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein had been included in the official security check, but claimed that the former US ambassador had “completely distorted the extent of their relationship”.
Under pressure to explain what he was told about the Briton’s ties to the American during the ambassadorial selection process, the prime minister told Parliament he would release all material relating to Mandelson’s appointment, with the exception of material that could compromise the UK’s national security and international relations.
Badenoch warned that the exceptions could “gloss over” the documents.
Mandelson resigned from the Labor Party on Sunday, saying he did not want to cause “further embarrassment”.
James Frater and Max Foster, from CNN, contributed to this report
