The Metropolitan police are to formally launch a criminal investigation into allegations that Peter Mandelson leaked emails to Downing Street and sensitive market information to child offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Documents from the Epstein files released in recent days show that the commerce secretary sent confidential information in a series of emails to the late financier after the financial crash.
They prompted a furious response from across the political spectrum, including Gordon Brown, who was prime minister at the time of the alleged offences. MPs reported Mandelson to Scotland Yard for misconduct in public office.
Mandelson resigned from the House of Lords on Tuesday afternoon.
Keir Starmer, who handed over a dossier to police, told a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning he was horrified by the reported leak. He asked officials to draft legislation to remove Mandelson from his peerage “as soon as possible”.
The prime minister’s spokesman said the Cabinet Office was looking at all the information it had about the documents, but an initial review of the Epstein files released Friday by the US Justice Department found they contained potentially market-sensitive information about the 2008 financial crash and subsequent economic recovery efforts.
Brown wrote to the Metropolitan Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, “with information relevant to his investigation into Lord Mandelson’s disclosure of market sensitive and confidential government information” to Epstein.
Emails passed on to Epstein from senior UK government officials show Mandelson claiming he was “trying hard” to change the government’s policy on bankers’ bonuses, sharing details of an impending bailout package for the euro the day before it was announced in 2010, and suggesting the JP Morgan boss “slightly threatened” the chancellor.
During coalition talks in 2010, with Mandelson at his side offering advice, Brown finally decided to step down as prime minister. Hours before he announced his departure from No 10, Mandelson emailed Epstein: “Finally letting him go today.”
MPs have told the Guardian they want to press for further disclosure from Downing Street – including the prime minister’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney – about what Mandelson was asked before he was appointed as US ambassador.
The UK’s health secretary, Wes Streeting, said Mandelson’s association with Epstein was a “betrayal on many levels” but he could not see how the Cabinet Office or Starmer could have known about Epstein’s leaking of confidential information.
More details soon…