Sir Keir Starmer is demanding that Lord Peter Mandelson should not be a member of the House of Lords after new documents revealed more details over his links to the disgraced financier and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
A Downing Street spokesperson said, “The prime minister always said anyone with information should be prepared to share [that information] in whatever form.”
There has been calls by opposition leaders to “strip” Mandelson of his peerage and there needs to be a “full Cabinet Office investigation” into the former US ambassador.
The Liberal Democratic leader Sir Davey said, “It’s time now for the Government to take immediate action by bringing forward legislation to strip Peter Mandelson of his peerage.
“It is the very least they can do for the victims and survivors of his friend Jeffrey Epstein.”
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said, “Enough is enough. We need a full Cabinet Office investigation into how Mandelson and his husband took money from the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein while he was a Labour minister, and why Mandelson was appointed ambassador in the first place.”
A Conservative Party spokesman said, “Lord Mandelson is completely disgraced. Yet Keir Starmer lacked the backbone to take action, allowing Mandelson to resign from the Labour Party instead of kicking him out.
“Keir Starmer and his chief of staff appointed Mandelson ambassador despite his relationship with Epstein, and then refused to act even as the mountain of evidence against him grew.
Given the Prime Minister’s appalling lack of judgment and the participation of his Downing Street operation, there must now be a full and thorough independent investigation.
Education minister Olivia Bailey told LBC Radio on Monday, “There are clearly questions that must be answered as a consequence of the documents that have been revealed over the weekend about the depth and extent of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, about donations that don’t appear have been declared.”
On Sunday evening Mandelson wrote to Labour’s General Secretary Hollie Ridely to announced he is quitting the party.
In his resignation letter, Lord Mandelson wrote, “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.
Lord Mandelson added, “I want to take this opportunity to repeat my apology to the women and girls whose voices should have been heard long before now.”
