Lord Mandelson was sacked as US Ambassador last year (Image: Getty)
Lord Peter Mandelson said he has resigned his membership of the Labour Party following further revelations about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. The peer, who was sacked as US ambassador last year because of his links to Epstein, said he had taken the decision to avoid causing the party “further embarrassment”.
Mandelson, 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 paedophile financier. The former key ally of Tony Blair announced that he had written to Hollie Ridley, general secretary of the Labour Party on Sunday evening to say he was stepping down from his party membership. In his letter, he said: “I have been further linked this weekend to the understandable furore surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and I feel regretful and sorry about this.
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Lord Mandelson was sacked last year following a similar release of documents related to Epstein (Image: Getty)
“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.”
The former MP has been a member of the party since his teenage years and became an integral part of the Labour Party’s rebranding to New Labour under Tony Blair, where he was known for his behind-the-scenes fixing as the party swept to a landslide election victory in 1997.
He held a range of senior positions in government under Prime Minister Tony Blair and later Gordon Brown. He was Secretary of State for Business and Trade in 1998 and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland between 1999 to 2001.
However his political career has never been far from controversy, with Mandelson forced to resign twice after being engulfed in controversies over a loan and a passport application.
Despite this, he was appointed to the House of Lords as a life peer in 2008.
Emails released by the US Department of Justice on Friday appear to show a discussion in 2009 between Epstein and Lord Mandelson, as they discuss a tax on bankers’ bonuses.
Within them, Mandelson appears to have told paedophile financier that he was “trying hard” to change policy on bankers’ bonuses not long after Gordon Brown’s government clamped down on them in the wake of the financial crisis.
Mandelson said he took the decision to save the Labour Party from ‘further embarrassment’ (Image: Getty)
The peer, who was sacked as US ambassador last year because of his links to Epstein, has featured throughout the document dump.
An email dated December 15, 2009, which appears to be from Epstein, reads: “any real chance of making the tax only on the cash portion of the bankers bonus”.
The reply, apparently from Lord Mandelson, reads: “Trying hard to amend as I explained to Jes last night. Treasury digging in but I am on case.”
The emails suggest the peer, then business secretary, was prepared to lobby the Government over the so-called “super tax” introduced in early December 2009, by then-chancellor Alistair Darling, to clamp down on bank profits being used to pay large bonuses for bankers in the wake of the financial crisis.
Lord Mandelson told the Press Association: “Every UK and international bank was making the same argument about the impact on UK financial services.
“My conversations in government at the time reflected the views of the sector as a whole not a single individual.”
He also said he did not remember receiving payments from Epstein which totalled 75,000 US dollars and were made when he was a Labour MP.
