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Gordon Brown asks top civil servant to investigate Mandelson 'leak to Epstein'
Source: The Guardian
The former prime minister Gordon Brown has asked the cabinet secretary to investigate Peter Mandelson’s apparent disclosure of highly sensitive government information to Jeffrey Epstein.
Mandelson was business secretary during Brown’s premiership, when he appears to have leaked an economic briefing to Epstein, who was serving a jail sentence at the time for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
The email, which had the subject line “Business issues”, was sent by Brown’s special adviser Nick Butler on 13 June 2009 after the global financial crisis. It detailed potential policy measures and suggested the government had saleable assets.
Mandelson forwarded the email to Epstein and said: “Interesting note that’s gone to the PM.”
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/02/gordon-brown-asks-top-civil-servant-to-investigate-mandelson-leak-to-epstein
Mandelson should no longer be a peer, says Starmer
Keir Starmer has demanded Peter Mandelson resign from the House of Lords and urged the upper chamber to modernise its disciplinary procedures to allow peers to be stripped of their titles.
The cabinet secretary, the UK’s most senior civil servant, will also investigate Mandelson’s actions as business secretary when Labour was last in power, after emails to Jeffrey Epstein about highly sensitive government policy emerged.
The documents released on Friday by the US Department of Justice also appear to show Mandelson, as business secretary in 2009, forwarded a confidential UK government document outlining £20bn in asset sales and outlining Labour’s tax policy plans. He also told the disgraced financier that he was “trying hard” to change government policy on bankers’ bonuses at his request.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/02/house-of-lords-should-strip-mandelson-of-peerage-says-starmer
Keir Starmer has demanded Peter Mandelson resign from the House of Lords and urged the upper chamber to modernise its disciplinary procedures to allow peers to be stripped of their titles.
The cabinet secretary, the UK’s most senior civil servant, will also investigate Mandelson’s actions as business secretary when Labour was last in power, after emails to Jeffrey Epstein about highly sensitive government policy emerged.
The documents released on Friday by the US Department of Justice also appear to show Mandelson, as business secretary in 2009, forwarded a confidential UK government document outlining £20bn in asset sales and outlining Labour’s tax policy plans. He also told the disgraced financier that he was “trying hard” to change government policy on bankers’ bonuses at his request.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/02/house-of-lords-should-strip-mandelson-of-peerage-says-starmer
Mandelson seemingly suggested bank boss should 'mildly threaten' chancellor
Darling told me about a painful and angry telephone conversation he had with Jamie Dimon, chief executive of US banking giant JP Morgan, at the end of 2009 when the UK government announced plans to tax bankers' bonuses.
Some of it had been reported at the time, such as a threat to pull plans for JP Morgan's massive new headquarters in the UK.
But - to my utter astonishment - details of the background and the context to this call appear to be in the Epstein files released on Friday, and appear to have involved the unlikely combination of Peter Mandelson, Jeffrey Epstein and the suggestion of "mild threats" over the bonus tax.
Mandelson, then business secretary, seemingly suggested that Dimon should threaten Darling mildly over the tax.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/clynp40ekrdt?post=asset%3Aaa0722dc-12ee-4a97-beb3-87837a8214c8#post
Darling told me about a painful and angry telephone conversation he had with Jamie Dimon, chief executive of US banking giant JP Morgan, at the end of 2009 when the UK government announced plans to tax bankers' bonuses.
Some of it had been reported at the time, such as a threat to pull plans for JP Morgan's massive new headquarters in the UK.
But - to my utter astonishment - details of the background and the context to this call appear to be in the Epstein files released on Friday, and appear to have involved the unlikely combination of Peter Mandelson, Jeffrey Epstein and the suggestion of "mild threats" over the bonus tax.
Mandelson, then business secretary, seemingly suggested that Dimon should threaten Darling mildly over the tax.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/clynp40ekrdt?post=asset%3Aaa0722dc-12ee-4a97-beb3-87837a8214c8#post
The business secretary and "First Secretary of State" suggesting a banker should "mildly threaten" his Cabinet colleague, the Chancellor of the Exchequer? This is unprecedented (in public knowledge, at least). I don't blame either party for doing this - it's a political no-brainer, and probably the moral thing to do:
SNP and Reform UK report Mandelson to the Met Police
The Leader of the SNP in Westminster - Stephen Flynn - said in a letter to the Met Police commissioner: "If such allegations are investigated and proven, it is gravely serious – for Peter Mandelson, for the Labour Prime Ministers who appointed him and for the UK government as a whole. That is why I believe it is now clearly in the public interest that all of these newly released emails and files, and Mandelson’s entire period in UK Labour Governments, must now be criminally investigated."
The SNP leader continued in the letter, saying "grounds for such a criminal investigation are already well established in law. In the Attorney General's Reference No 3 of 2003 [2004] EWCA Crim 868 the court said that the misconduct must amount to: '… an affront to the standing of the public office held. The threshold is a high one requiring conduct so far below acceptable standards as to amount to an abuse of the public's trust in the office holder'."
...
Reform UK have confirmed to the BBC they have reported Mandelson.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/clynp40ekrdt?post=asset%3A353b8e1d-ec6b-4a5d-b262-7a5dce63eecc#post
The Leader of the SNP in Westminster - Stephen Flynn - said in a letter to the Met Police commissioner: "If such allegations are investigated and proven, it is gravely serious – for Peter Mandelson, for the Labour Prime Ministers who appointed him and for the UK government as a whole. That is why I believe it is now clearly in the public interest that all of these newly released emails and files, and Mandelson’s entire period in UK Labour Governments, must now be criminally investigated."
The SNP leader continued in the letter, saying "grounds for such a criminal investigation are already well established in law. In the Attorney General's Reference No 3 of 2003 [2004] EWCA Crim 868 the court said that the misconduct must amount to: '… an affront to the standing of the public office held. The threshold is a high one requiring conduct so far below acceptable standards as to amount to an abuse of the public's trust in the office holder'."
...
Reform UK have confirmed to the BBC they have reported Mandelson.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/clynp40ekrdt?post=asset%3A353b8e1d-ec6b-4a5d-b262-7a5dce63eecc#post
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