Police are investigating allegations that Peter Mandelson passed confidential government information to Jeffrey Epstein.
Published February 3, 2026
British politician Peter Mandelson will resign from the House of Lords of Parliament amid new scrutiny and the prospect of a criminal investigation into his relationship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Michael Forsyth, leader of the House of Lords, announced on Tuesday that Mr Mandelson, 72, had notified the House of Commons of his intention to resign. Forsyth said the measure would go into effect Wednesday.
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Mr Mandelson, a former British ambassador to the United States and a longtime leader of the country’s Labor Party, has come under intense pressure following the release of new parts of US government documents relating to Mr Epstein.
The documents include emails from Mr. Mandelson to Mr. Epstein in which they shared political insights, including market-sensitive information from the 2008 financial crisis, which critics say may violate the law.
British police said they were assessing reports of possible misconduct and “determining whether they meet the criminal criteria for an investigation.”
The files also include bank documents that suggest Mr. Epstein transferred tens of thousands of dollars to accounts linked to Mr. Mandelson and his partner Reynaldo Avila da Silva. Mr Mandelson said he did not recall any such transactions and would examine the documents.
Additional documents include emails suggesting a friendly relationship between the two after Epstein was convicted of sex crimes in 2008, and an image of Mandelson in his underwear next to a woman whose face was obscured by U.S. authorities.
Mandelson told the BBC: “I can’t pinpoint the location, I can’t pinpoint the woman, I can’t imagine what the situation was like.”
Starmer says he is ‘appalled’
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told ministers on Tuesday that he was “appalled by the information” about Mr Mandelson and feared further details would emerge, according to a Downing Street cabinet report.
Starmer also said he had ordered civil servants to “urgently” investigate all contacts between Mandelson and Epstein while in government.
“It is a disgrace to be accused of having released highly confidential government emails,” he said, adding that “there is still no sense of security that the full extent of the information has not yet been revealed” regarding the relationship between Mr Mandelson and Mr Epstein.
Mr Mandelson, who was sacked as Britain’s ambassador to the US in September after his links with Mr Epstein were previously exposed, left Labor on Sunday to avoid what he called “further embarrassment”.
In an interview with The Times late last month and published on Tuesday, Mandelson described Epstein as a “master manipulator,” adding: “I’ve had a lot of bad luck, some of which is definitely my fault.”
