Former British Ambassador to the USA, Peter Mandelson. File
| Picture Credit score: AP
The U.Okay. Overseas Ministry stated on Sunday (February 8, 2026) it was reviewing an exit cost to former U.S. envoy Peter Mandelson, who was sacked over hyperlinks to convicted U.S. intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr. Mandelson acquired an estimated pay-out of between £38,750 and £55,000 ($52,000 and $74,000) after solely seven months within the job as British ambassador to the USA, in accordance with a report within the Sunday Instances.
Paperwork launched on January 30 by the U.S. Justice Division seem to indicate that Mr. Mandelson allegedly leaked confidential U.Okay. authorities info to the late Epstein when he was a British Minister, together with in the course of the 2008 monetary disaster.
The revelation has positioned intense stress on Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer and triggered a police investigation into get together insider Mandelson, 72, for alleged misconduct in a public workplace.
The Overseas Workplace stated in a press release it had launched a assessment into Mr. Mandelson’s severance cost “in gentle of additional info that has now been revealed and the continuing police investigation”.
Cupboard Minister Pat McFadden insisted Mr. Starmer ought to stay in workplace regardless of his “horrible mistake” in appointing Mandelson.
The shut Mr. Starmer ally advised broadcasters the get together ought to follow the Prime Minister.
“He (Starmer) needs to be real looking and settle for that this has been a horrible story, that this appointment was a horrible mistake,” McFadden, the Work and Pensions Secretary, advised BBC tv.
He stated the actual blame lay “squarely with Peter Mandelson”, who put himself ahead for the job regardless of understanding the extent of his relationship with Epstein.
Mr. Starmer’s deputy, David Lammy, grew to become the primary Cupboard Minister to seem to distance himself from the premier, in accordance with a report within the Sunday Telegraph.
The Minister had not been in favour of appointing Mandelson, a pivotal determine in British politics for many years, because of his identified hyperlinks to Epstein, the report quoted associates of Mr. Lammy as saying.
Starmer’s Labour Celebration took energy simply over 18 months in the past in a landslide election victory.
However it has been trailing Nigel Farage’s anti-immigrant Reform UK as the federal government has come beneath fireplace over immigration, financial development and the price of dwelling disaster.
Reform UK has led by double-digit figures within the polls for the previous yr.
Mandelson, additionally a former European Union commerce commissioner, stood down from Parliament’s unelected higher chamber, the Home of Lords, earlier this week.
Mr. Starmer fired him in September following an earlier launch of Epstein paperwork.
The ex-envoy was one in all quite a few outstanding figures once more embarrassed by final week’s newest revelations of ties to financier Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 whereas going through fees of alleged intercourse trafficking.
A spokesperson for legislation agency Mishcon de Reya, representing Mandelson, stated the latter “regrets, and can remorse till to his dying day, that he believed Epstein’s lies about his criminality”.
“Lord Mandelson didn’t uncover the reality about Epstein till after his demise in 2019. He’s profoundly sorry that powerless and susceptible ladies and women weren’t given the safety they deserved,” the legislation agency stated.
Revealed – February 08, 2026 07:49 pm IST