Police begin criminal investigation into Mandelson allegations
A criminal investigation has been launched into allegations Peter Mandelson passed market-sensitive information to the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, police said on Tuesday evening.
Commander Ella Marriott, from the Metropolitan Police, said: “Following the further release of millions of court documents in relation to Jeffrey Epstein by the United States Department of Justice, the Met received a number of reports into alleged misconduct in public office including a referral from the UK Government.
“I can confirm that the Metropolitan Police has now launched an investigation into a 72-year-old man, a former Government Minister, for misconduct in public office offences.
“The Met will continue to assess all relevant information brought to our attention as part of this investigation and won’t be commenting any further at this time.”
Mandelson has previously said: “I was wrong to believe Epstein following his conviction [in 2008 for procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute] and to continue my association with him afterwards. I apologise unequivocally for doing so to the women and girls who suffered.”
Key events
The government said it will provide any support the Metropolitan Police needs in its criminal investigation into allegations Lord Peter Mandelson leaked confidential information to Jeffrey Epstein.
A Government spokesperson said: “The Government stands ready to provide whatever support and assistance the police need.”
Badenoch added: “He [Starmer] knew all of this long before the investigations were required and he still did that.
“He has a lot of questions to answer and he should not try and distract anyone by talking about removing peerages or investigations.
“The Prime Minister himself should be answering questions about how this happened.”
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said it is “right” there is a full criminal investigation into allegations Peter Mandelson passed market sensitive information to Jeffrey Epstein, but told broadcasters it “should not distract from the fact that the Prime Minister appointed a man who was the close friend and associate of a notorious and convicted paedophile”.
Police begin criminal investigation into Mandelson allegations
A criminal investigation has been launched into allegations Peter Mandelson passed market-sensitive information to the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, police said on Tuesday evening.
Commander Ella Marriott, from the Metropolitan Police, said: “Following the further release of millions of court documents in relation to Jeffrey Epstein by the United States Department of Justice, the Met received a number of reports into alleged misconduct in public office including a referral from the UK Government.
“I can confirm that the Metropolitan Police has now launched an investigation into a 72-year-old man, a former Government Minister, for misconduct in public office offences.
“The Met will continue to assess all relevant information brought to our attention as part of this investigation and won’t be commenting any further at this time.”
Mandelson has previously said: “I was wrong to believe Epstein following his conviction [in 2008 for procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute] and to continue my association with him afterwards. I apologise unequivocally for doing so to the women and girls who suffered.”
Lord Mandelson to face criminal investigation
A criminal investigation has been launched into allegations that Lord Peter Mandelson passed market-sensitive information to Jeffrey Epstein.
Files released by the US Department of Justice apparently showed Mandelson allegedly passing material to Epstein while serving as business secretary in Gordon Brown’s Labour administration as it dealt with the 2008 financial crash and its aftermath.
The Cabinet Office had passed material to the police after an initial review of documents released as part of the Epstein files found they contained “likely market-sensitive information” and official handling safeguards had been “compromised”.
The Metropolitan police are to formally launch a criminal investigation into allegations that Peter Mandelson leaked Downing Street emails and market sensitive information to the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the Guardian understands.
Early evening summary
Reform UK has been branded racist for arguing that the two-child benefit cap should be lifted only for those families where both parents are British-born and in full-time work, PA Media reports. The Green MP Siân Berry told MPs she wanted to “utterly reject the racist agenda of the Reform members’ objections”. Meanwhile, Conservative former minister Kit Malthouse said Reform is calling for “open discrimination” and pointed out that the policy would affect his own children and the children of sitting Reform MPs. He said: “There is something grotesque about seeking legislation which seeks to downgrade the citizenship of your own children.” Reform MP Sarah Pochin backed her party’s policy, arguing that removing the two-child benefit cap entirely rewards those who “play the system”. They were speaking as the Commons debated the government bill to get rid of the two-child benefit cap. Ministers say the move will take 450,000 children out of poverty. Reform UK announced that, instead of spending £3bn on getting rid of the cap, they would keep it and spend the money instead on financial support for pubs. (See 2.18pm.)
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
In November last year Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, announced plans to change UK settlement rules which result in many migrants having to wait twice as long as they do now – 10 years, not five years – before they can qualify for indefinite leave to remain.
There was relatively little Labour protest at the time but, as Emilio Casalicchio and Noah Keate report in their London Playbook briefing for Politico, anger about the plans erupted yesterday in a debate in Westminster Hall.
They report:
Dozens of backbenchers lined up last night to hammer the government in public, over a proposal to double the settlement wait to a full decade, and up to two decades for some. People who arrived on post-Brexit health and social care visas will need to wait 15 years, for example.
Labour MPs said it would be “un-British” to “move the goalposts,” while warning the plan could hobble public services, undermine businesses and damage the U.K. reputation abroad. The criticisms were aired from across the Labour movement during a packed Westminster Hall debate.
Folkestone MP Tony Vaughan said the proposals are a “breach of trust” for migrants who arrived under existing rules. “It makes Britain look unpredictable and like a country that does not keep its word,” he said.
Former minister and Starmer pal Tulip Siddiq said it would be “shameful” to row back on existing rules, while Labour ex-frontbencher Gareth Thomas said the proposals “would be the height of unfairness.”
Here is video of Michael Forsyth, the lord speaker, telling peers that Peter Mandelson is retiring.
Violent and extremist inmates to be kept in supermax-style prison units, Lammy tells MPs
Violent and extremist inmates will be kept in new supermax-style prison units, David Lammy, the justice secretary has announced. PA Media says:
Offenders kept in the units will face tougher conditions inspired by supermax prisons in the United States.
The move comes after Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi allegedly carried out a “terrorist” attack on prison officers at a maximum security jail with hot cooking oil and makeshift weapons.
David Lammy said a review by Jonathan Hall KC into the alleged attack on three prison guards at HMP Frankland in 2025 had showed improvements were needed.
He said separation centres, special units inside prisons to house Islamic extremists, would be transformed with a new tiered system.
Separation centres were created in 2017 to isolate extremist offenders from the mainstream prison population.
Prisons that currently have the centres are HMP Full Sutton near York, HMP Frankland in County Durham, and HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes.
Staff working in such units will receive specialist training, and intelligence collection will be sped up, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) outlined.
Movement between the tiers will only be possible after “rigorous risk assessments”, the MoJ said.
Abedi, who was convicted over the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing which killed 22 people, was transferred from Frankland, in Durham, to Belmarsh prison in south-east London following the alleged attack.
Three prison officers were taken to hospital with serious injuries following the incident.
Abedi denied the attack when he appeared at the Old Bailey last year.
Lammy said the government had accepted all 13 recommendations made by Hall.
Gordon Brown writes to Met to back case for investigation into Mandelson’s ‘inexcusable and unpatriotic’ leaking
The former prime minister Gordon Brown has written to the Metropolitan police with information to back the case for a criminal investigation into Peter Mandelson.
In a statement, Brown said:
I have today written to the Met Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, with information relevant to his investigation of Lord Mandelson’s disclosure of market sensitive and confidential government information to the American financier, Jeffrey Epstein, an inexcusable and unpatriotic act at a time when the whole government and country were attempting to address the global financial crisis that was damaging so many livelihoods.
I have sent Sir Mark correspondence, exchanged between myself and the cabinet secretary last year, and I have also passed over information arising from it that may be important in his current investigation.
I have included the letter I sent in September 2025 asking the cabinet secretary to investigate the veracity of information contained in the Epstein papers regarding the sale of assets arising from the banking collapse and communications about them between Lord Mandelson and Mr Epstein.
I have also included the November 2025 response from the cabinet secretary who said about this that ‘no records of information or correspondence from Lord Mandelson’s mailbox’ could be found.
Having drawn their attention to relevant evidence, the matter now rests in the hands of the police.
Wes Streeting defends No 10 over Mandelson’s appointment, saying it couldn’t have known full extent of Epstein links
Some Labour MPs opposed to Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, are eager to blame him for the Peter Mandelson debacle. Mandelson and McSweeney formed something of a mutual admiration club in the period before the general election, they have a shared contempt for the Labour left, and McSweeney has been credited with persuading Starmer to make the peer an ambassador, despite the misgivings of others in Downing Street.
In an article for the i, Kitty Donaldson says some Labour MPs want to make McSweeney the “sacrificial lamb” after this scandal. She writes:
“No one is going to move against Keir before May, but after that, he will need a sacrificial lamb to save his premiership,” a government source told The i Paper.
“I just feel like a high-profile person’s got to go, maybe Rachel [Reeves] or maybe Morgan, because it’s either the PM, or somebody close to him. Rachel is in a better position than she was because people [Labour MPs] liked the budget” …
“This idea has been floating around for a while that Keir will have to get rid of someone after May. Ideally, he’d have a reshuffle, but he probably won’t have the authority to do that,” another government source said.
“The Mandelson stuff over the weekend has brought this idea up again because obviously Morgan was the main person pushing for his appointment.”
In an interview with Radio 5 Live today, Wes Streeting argued that no one in Downing Street could be blamed for the fact that Mandelson did not tell the whole truth about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein before he was made an ambassador. Streeting seemed to be defending both Starmer himself, and McSweeney.
Streeting said:
In terms of his appointment to be US ambassador, I can’t see how it would have been known or could have been known, the full extent of Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein or indeed the fact that he was passing sensitive and market-sensitive information to this man whilst as a serving government minister. I don’t think that could have be known and should have be known.
And if anyone is in any doubt about the judgment and integrity of this prime minister, they can judge him by his actions, making sure the ambassador was woken up in the middle of the night and was put on a plane back to London and recalled as our ambassador. That was swift, it was decisive, and Keir Starmer acted immediately upon knowing that the assurances that he had received through the vetting process had turned out to be false reassurances.
In the Commons yesterday Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the PM, suggested Mandelson lied in his declaration of interests before his appointment.
Labour has criticised Nigel Farage for refusing to disown Tommy Robinson’s endorsement in the Gorton and Denton byelection. (See 3.33pm.) A Labour spokesperson said:
Nigel Farage’s refusal to reject and denounce Tommy Robinson’s endorsement of Matt Goodwin tells you all you need to know about what’s at stake in the Gorton and Denton byelection.
It really shouldn’t be that difficult for Reform to say they don’t welcome the backing of an appalling far-right activist like Robinson. Voters will be left with no choice but to assume they’re happy to have his support.
No 10 welcomes Mandelson’s decision to leave House of Lords
Downing Street has welcomed the news that Peter Mandelson has retired from the House of Lords. A No 10 spokesperson said:
It is right that Peter Mandelson will no longer be a member of the House of Lords.
As the prime minister said this morning, Peter Mandelson let his country down.
Farage defends Reform UK donations from firm with links to foreign-born billionaire, saying they’re ‘perfectly legitimate’
The final question, or questions, at the Nigel Farage press conference came from my colleague Peter Walker.
Q: Tommy Robinson has endorsed Reform UK in the Gorton and Denton byelection. Matt Goodwin, the candidate, has not disowned him. Should he?
Farage said he did not think endorsements matter. Tommy Robinson could do what he liked. Farage said he was not bothered.
Q: Can you explain why your party is getting so much money from John Simpson, as explained in the Sunday Times story at the weekend? (See 2.07pm.)
Farage said that he did not know Simpson. He was not one of his contacts, he said.
But he said he knew most of the party’s donors, certainly the big ones. “And you will be finding out a lot more about that, of course, in a few weeks’ time, when the Q1 figures are published, and you’ll be perhaps quite surprised by what you see.”
Farage said he did check out the Sunday Times story. “Everything’s legal, everything’s above board,” he said. He said people could speculate about Simpson “till the cows come home”, but he was a “perfectly legitimate donor”.
Farage says defection from Labour he promised still ‘work in progress’
At his press conference Nigel Farage was asked happened to the Labour defector was was promising a few weeks ago.
Farage claimed that was a “work in progress”. He said the party was talking to two or three “formerly quite senior Labour figures” about possible defections.
Q: You don’t want foreigners to have benefits. If you were PM, and a foreign person lost their job, what would your advice to them be?
Farage advises the questioner to read the Swedish newspapers today. They are getting rid of indefinite leave to remain, he says.
This is the statement that Michael Forsyth, the lord speaker, read out announcing that Peter Mandelson has quit the Lords.
My lords, given the public interest, and for the convenience of the house, I have decided to inform the house that the clerk of the parliaments has today received notification from Lord Mandelson of his intention to retire from the house efffective from 4 February. I will formally notify this to the house tomorrow in the usual way.
Mandelson to give up membership of House of Lords – but his peerage not affected
Peter Mandelson is to step down from the House of Lords.
The move was announced in the Lords by the Lord Speaker, Michael Forsyth.
This means he will no longer be a member, and entitled to take part in its proceedings.
But he will keep his title, and he will still be entitled to call himself Lord Mandelson.
