It is one of the staple headlines of British politics: Peter Mandelson has resigned. The ‘Prince of Darkness’ was sacked as US ambassador last September, but that has not stopped the flurry of stories about the alleged nature of his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. A further three million emails were published this weekend, leading to another avalanche of claims about Mandelson’s links to the dead sex offender. Sounds like Mandy could do with his own Mandy…
The latest batch of files released by the US Department of Justice included three apparent bank statements detailing three money transfers of $25,000 each from the paedophile financier in 2003 and 2004. It is unclear whether the payments ever made it into any named accounts and Mandelson has denied any record or recollection of the payments. But amid amounting questions about proper declarations of interest, he decided to last night issue a statement to PA just after 10 p.m. It said:
I have been further linked this weekend to the understandable furore surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and I feel regretful and sorry about this. 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. I want to take this opportunity to repeat my apology to the women and girls whose voices should have been heard long before now. I have dedicated my life to the values and success of the Labour party and in taking my decision, I believe I am acting in its best interests.
Better late than never eh Pete? By resigning his membership, Keir Starmer’s team will hope that it kills the story by PMQs on Wednesday. Yet, the claims about Mandelson keep on coming, with the Financial Times today splashing on an email which suggested Epstein should encourage the boss of JP Morgan to ‘mildly threaten’ the Gordon Brown government in which he served.
Good old Mandy – always good for a story…
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