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Peter Mandelson has said he has resigned his membership of the Labour party to avoid causing it “further embarrassment” after more revelations about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
The peer, who was sacked as US ambassador last year because of his links to Epstein, featured in documents released by the US Department of Justice on Friday related to the convicted sex offender.
Mandelson said he had written on Sunday evening to Hollie Ridley, general secretary of the Labour party to say he was resigning his party membership.
His letter said: “I have been further linked this weekend to the understandable furore surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and I feel regretful and sorry about this.
“Allegations which I believe to be false that he made financial payments to me 20 years ago, and of which I have no record or recollection, need investigating by me.
“While doing this, I do not wish to cause further embarrassment to the Labour party and I am therefore stepping down from membership of the party.
“I want to take this opportunity to repeat my apology to the women and girls whose voices should have been heard long before now.
“I have dedicated my life to the values and success of the Labour party and in taking my decision, I believe I am acting in its best interests.”
A Conservative party spokesman said there should now be an independent investigation into Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador.
“Lord Mandelson is competely disgraced. Yet Keir Starmer lacked the backbone to take action, allowing Mandelson to resign from the Labour party instead of kicking him out.
“Keir Starmer and his chief of staff appointed Mandelson ambassador despite his relationship with Epstein, and then refused to act even as the mountain of evidence against him grew.
“Given the prime minister’s appalling lack of judgment and the participation of his Downing Street operation, there must now be a full and thorough independent investigation.”
Earlier, a government minister had said Mandelson should testify before the US Congress about his links to Jeffrey Epstein as documents appeared to show the late child sex offender sent the then Labour MP $75,000.
Emails and other documents released by the US justice department on Friday shed new light on the closeness of the relationship between Epstein and Lord Mandelson.
Bank statements appear to show three separate payments of $25,000 referencing the former UK business secretary being sent from Epstein’s JP Morgan bank accounts.
Contacted about the statements, Mandelson said: “I have no record and no recollection of receiving these sums and do not know if the documents are authentic.”
Mandelson reiterated that he had been wrong to believe Epstein and continue his association with him, adding: “I deeply regret doing so and apologise unequivocally to the women and girls who suffered.”
On Sunday the housing, communities and local government secretary, Steve Reed, said Mandelson had “a moral obligation” to share what he knew about the disgraced financier.
He told Sky News that anyone with information or evidence should share it “whether that is Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, whether it’s Lord Mandelson, or whether it’s anybody else”, adding: “[T]hey have a moral obligation to share what they knew so that the victims can help find the justice that they’ve been denied for so long.”
But Reed refused to be drawn on whether Mandelson, who has been on leave of absence from the House of Lords since he took up his role as US ambassador and does not have the Labour whip, should possibly be stripped of his peerage. “I think before taking any action like that, we need to understand exactly what’s happened,” he said.
Pressure had been mounting on Keir Starmer to take action to block any return of Mandelson to the Lords as a Labour peer, after the emails released on Friday also appear to show the then business secretary in Gordon Brown’s government assuring Epstein in December 2009 that he was “trying hard” to change government policy on bankers’ bonuses at his request.
In an email exchange on 15 December 2009, in which email addresses are redacted, Epstein asked Mandelson if the policy could be changed, writing: “Any [sic] real chance of making the tax only on the cash portion of the bankers bonus.” Mandelson replied: “Trying hard to amend as I explained to Jes last night. Treasury digging in but I am on case.”
Correspondence months earlier appeared to show that Mandelson’s husband, da Silva, had successfully asked the financier to pay him £10,000 in September 2009 to fund an osteopathy course and other expenses.
A statement dated 14 May 2003 relating to the apparent $75,000 payment and first reported by the Financial Times shows a payment sent to a Barclays Bank account where Mandelson’s then partner, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, is named as “A/C”, typically an abbreviation for account. “Peter Mandelson” is named on the account as “BEN”, often an abbreviation for beneficiary.
The second and third payments of $25,000 appear to have been made to HSBC accounts, days apart in June 2004. In both, “Peter Mandelson” is identified as “BEN”.
It is unclear if the three payments ever made it into any of the named accounts and being named or pictured in the files is not an indication of wrongdoing.
Sources close to Mandelson said the statements could not be taken at face value and contained errors. They said the US justice department had previously stated that the Epstein files may contain false images, documents or videos.
Returning from a trip to China, the prime minister was asked whether a £10,000 payment to Mandelson’s partner at a time when he was a Labour business secretary fell far from the standards he expected of a peer.
“In relation to Peter Mandelson, obviously he was removed as ambassador in relation to the further information that came to light in September of last year,” Starmer said. “I’ve nothing more to say in relation to Peter Mandelson.”
Images of Mandelson in his underwear were also released in the latest tranche of Epstein files. Responding to a redacted picture, where he is seen standing next to a woman, Mandelson said he “cannot place the location or the woman and I cannot think what the circumstances were”.
Mandelson should now offer to give evidence to the US Congress, said the Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine, a member of the women and equalities select committee. “I think anyone who has any knowledge of what Epstein was doing has a moral responsibility to his victims to help the authorities in any way they can,” she said. “The public also has a right to hold its politicians to a certain standard and we must ensure that happens in this absolutely disgusting situation.”
A Labour spokesperson said: “The Labour party takes all complaints seriously and they are investigated in line with our rules and procedures.”
