In the long run, it was a scandal too far, even for Peter Mandelson.
The newest explosive Epstein revelations have compelled him to resign from his beloved Labour Get together, he says, to avoid wasting the occasion from “additional embarrassment”.
It is tough to think about what could possibly be extra embarrassing than this weekend’s disclosure of alleged funds by Jeffrey Epstein to his associate, claims of lobbying a Labour chancellor on tax coverage, and being photographed sporting nothing greater than a T-shirt and a pair of underpants.
Saying his resignation from the occasion on Sunday night, he challenged a number of the allegations within the Epstein recordsdata and repeated his declare that he had no document or recollection of the funds to his now husband.
He mentioned he had written to Hollie Ridley, common secretary of the Labour Get together, to say he was stepping down from his occasion membership.
However did he leap or was he pushed? Even when Sir Keir Starmer did not demand his resignation, such an astute political operator as Lord Mandelson may see he could not stay within the occasion, and he had no various however to resign.
In his resignation letter, he wrote: “I’ve been additional linked this weekend to the comprehensible furore surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and I really feel regretful and sorry about this.
“Allegations which I imagine to be false that he made monetary funds to me 20 years in the past, and of which I’ve no document or recollection, want investigating by me.
“Whereas doing this I don’t want to trigger additional embarrassment to the Labour Get together and I’m due to this fact stepping down from membership of the occasion.”
File pic: PA
He added: “I need to take this chance to repeat my apology to the ladies and women whose voices ought to have been heard lengthy prior to now.
“I’ve devoted my life to the values and success of the Labour Get together and in taking my choice I imagine I’m performing in its greatest pursuits.”
His resignation got here solely hours after the Tory chief, Kemi Badenoch, known as on the PM to droop his membership of the occasion and launch an investigation into the monetary allegations.
‘Utterly disgraced’
And the Conservatives responded to his resignation with an additional assault, a spokesman claiming: “Lord Mandelson is totally disgraced.
“But Keir Starmer lacked the spine to take motion, permitting Mandelson to resign from the Labour Get together as a substitute of kicking him out.
“Keir Starmer and his chief of employees appointed Mandelson ambassador regardless of his relationship with Epstein after which refused to behave even because the mountain of proof towards him grew.
“Given the prime minister’s appalling lack of judgment and the participation of his Downing Road operation, there should now be a full and thorough unbiased investigation.”
However the resignation should have been a horrible wrench in addition to a humiliation for Lord Mandelson, who had – as he lamented – devoted his life to the occasion.
A scandal-tainted profession
Certainly, he was born into the Labour Get together. His grandfather was Herbert Morrison, one of many giants of Clement Attlee’s post-war authorities.
Nevertheless it was his attraction to the wealthy and well-known and his fondness for the trimmings of wealth that caused what would be the last downfall of his scandal-tainted profession.
He famously informed tech executives when he was Sir Tony Blair’s commerce and business secretary in 1998: “We’re intensely relaxed about individuals getting filthy wealthy.”
Then, aware of the danger of damaging headlines, the previous spin physician often called the “Prince of Darkness”, added hurriedly: “So long as they pay their taxes.”
His last demise comes simply months after Sir Keir was compelled to sack him from the highest diplomatic publish of UK ambassador to the US over his affiliation with the convicted intercourse offender Epstein.
Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson in 2000. Pic: Paul Religion/PA
However Epstein was on no account the primary Mandelson scandal. He needed to resign from Sir Tony’s cupboard twice, first over an undeclared financial institution mortgage after which over intervening in a passport software by a prime Indian businessman.
A controversial and divisive determine
Over 4 a long time, almost all on the frontline of British politics, he was a consummate political networker, but additionally one of the divisive figures in public life and his appointment as ambassador was seen by critics as an act of cronyism by Sir Keir.
Acknowledging that Lord Mandelson – awarded a peerage in 2008 by Gordon Brown – was a controversial and divisive determine, Sir Tony declared in 1996: “My venture will likely be full when the Labour Get together learns to like Peter Mandelson.”
Learn extra:
Lord Mandelson quits Labour Party over Epstein links
Mandelson ‘has no recollection’ of Epstein giving him $75,000
Mandelson apologises for continuing friendship with Epstein
The Washington position is seen as probably the most glittering and necessary diplomatic publish within the UK authorities. The perks of the job embrace the luxurious ambassador’s residence in Massachusetts Avenue, an impressive Queen Anne mansion designed by prime architect Sir Edwin Lutyens.
When he appointed him as ambassador, Sir Keir noticed Lord Mandelson as a skilful and persuasive hyperlink to the president, along with his commerce expertise from his time as a cupboard minister and Brussels commissioner a significant qualification for the job.
By no means one for false modesty, Lord Mandelson claimed that when he first walked into the Oval Workplace the president mentioned to him: “God, you are a handsome fellow, aren’t you?”
Lord Mandelson met President Donald Trump after the UK-US commerce deal was introduced in Could 2025. Pic: Reuters
Diplomatic triumphs
Lord Mandelson was credited with a number of diplomatic triumphs in Washington. He performed a significant position in guaranteeing the UK escaped the worst of Trump’s tariffs and he was instrumental in securing a a lot sought-after commerce deal between the UK and the US.
And his silky PR abilities have been displayed when throughout Sir Keir’s first go to to the White Home in February, the PM theatrically pulled out of his inside pocket a letter from King Charles inviting the US president to go to the UK.
It was a traditional Lord Mandelson stunt and confirmed he’d misplaced not one of the aptitude for presentation he’d first deployed when he was Labour chief Neil Kinnock’s spin physician within the Nineteen Eighties.
Lord Mandelson’s high-profile political profession started as a TV producer till his appointment as Labour’s director of communications beneath Kinnock in 1985.
He was seen as a superb if ruthless spin physician, who masterminded the delivery of New Labour however would berate newspaper editors when unfavourable tales have been written by their political journalists.
One other traditional Lord Mandelson try and kill an embarrassing story was to inform the journalist who wrote or broadcast it in a sneering voice: “That may be a story that I imagine will stay an unique.”
He grew to become MP for Hartlepool in 1992 and helped propel Sir Tony to the management of the occasion after John Smith’s loss of life in 1994, a transfer that led to a bitter feud with Mr Brown.
Former Labour chief Neil Kinnock (L) with Mandelson on the Labour Get together convention in Brighton in 1997. Pic: PA
There’s an amusing story about Mandelson in Hartlepool, which he claimed is a fable and blames Kinnock for. It is claimed he ordered “a few of that scrumptious guacamole” in a fish and chip store, mistaking mushy peas for avocado dip.
It was an ideal Mandelson story, ridiculing his metropolitan tastes and ignorance of working-class life. However he claims the error was made by a younger American lady pupil who was serving to Labour’s marketing campaign.
‘I am a fighter, not a quitter’
His first cupboard job, commerce and business secretary in 1998, lasted solely 5 months after he was compelled to stop after failing to declare a house mortgage from Labour millionaire Geoffrey Robinson to his constructing society.
His resignation was comparable in a single respect to the demise of former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner final 12 months, in that it was over irregularities in shopping for a property: in Hove in her case, in modern Notting Hill in his.
He bounced again as Northern Eire secretary in 1999 and was mentioned to benefit from the luxurious of Hillsborough Citadel, which went with the job. However he was compelled to resign a second time over claims he helped businessman Srichand Hinduja with an software for UK citizenship.
When he held his seat in Hartlepool within the 2001 common election, Mandelson made a passionate and defiant victory speech at his rely during which he declared: “I am a fighter, not a quitter.”
But three years later he did stop as an MP, when he grew to become a commerce commissioner in Brussels, serving a four-year time period throughout which he had a spectacular row with French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who accused him of promoting out French farmers in commerce talks.
There have been extra controversies arising from his time in Brussels. In 2006, it was reported that he obtained a free cruise on a yacht from an Italian mogul who was mentioned to have benefited from tariffs on Chinese language sneakers when Mandelson was EU commerce commissioner.
Experiences additionally claimed he had been lent a non-public jet by banking and enterprise tycoon Nat Rothschild. And it was later reported that he had a vacation in August 2008 on the yacht of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska off the Greek island of Corfu.
Mr Deripaska was mentioned to have benefited from a minimize in EU aluminium tariffs launched by Mandelson. However prime minister Brown mentioned Mandelson’s dealings with Mr Deripaska had been “discovered to be above board”.
His political comeback
After Brussels got here maybe his most spectacular and sudden political comeback, when in 2008 his outdated foe Brown, by now prime minister however dealing with challenges to his management, introduced him again as enterprise secretary with a peerage.
A 12 months later, Brown awarded him the grand title, beforehand held by Michael Heseltine beneath John Main, of first secretary of state, a place he held till Labour’s election defeat in 2010.
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To the top, Lord Mandelson remained a faithful Blairite relatively than a soulmate of Mr Brown. And within the run-up to Sir Keir’s 2024 common election victory final 12 months, he was again within the fold, providing recommendation on campaigning and coverage.
He obtained his reward with the plum job of ambassador in Washington. However his hyperlinks to a really American scandal, involving the disgraced financier and intercourse offender Epstein, pushed him out of political life.
He might have hoped for one more comeback, however that will not occur now. There are calls from opposition MPs for him to be stripped of his peerage. Presently on go away of absence from the Lords, he says he does not plan to return.
However what is going to harm him most will likely be being compelled to sever his hyperlink with the Labour Get together that he was born into and which he served all his life. Till now. It is over.
