The Daily Populous Monday February 2nd, 2026 day edition
Authored by bbc.co.uk and submitted by Norn-Iron

Lord Mandelson has a long history with the Labour Party. His grandfather was Herbert Morrison, a cabinet minister in Clement Attlee's 1945 government, and he began working for Labour in the 1980s.

He was sent to Washington by Sir Keir in December 2024 as the UK's ambassador but was sacked the following September after further revelations emerged about his friendship with Epstein.

Lord Mandelson has been on a leave of absence from the House of Lords since he was appointed UK ambassador to the US and would have to give three months' notice that he intends to return.

He would automatically retire from the Lords at the end of the next parliamentary session, which begins in May, if he does not apply for another leave of absence nor come to parliament to swear an oath to the King.

With regards to his peerage, the government would have to propose and pass a piece of legislation specifically to remove this - which some want to happen.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has called for Lord Mandelson to be stripped of the privilege, saying it was the "very least they can do for the victims and survivors of his friend Jeffrey Epstein".

Emails revealed he had been in contact with Epstein after the US financier's 2008 conviction, sending a string of supportive messages.

Epstein's 2008 conviction was part of a plea bargain he reached in Florida. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to two charges, including soliciting girls as young as 14 for prostitution.

In 2019, Epstein died in a New York prison cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

The latest documents were released by the US Department of Justice as part of millions of new files related to Epstein - the largest batch since a law mandated their release last year.

The included bank statements, first reported by the Financial Times, external, appear to show three separate payments referencing Lord Mandelson, who was Labour MP for Hartlepool at the time, being sent from Epstein's JP Morgan bank accounts.

The first, dated 14 May 2003, shows a payment was sent to a Barclays bank account where Reinaldo Avila da Silva - Lord Mandelson's partner at the time - is named as "A/C", typically an abbreviation for account.

In that payment, a "Peter Mandelson" is named on the account as "BEN", which is often an abbreviation for beneficiary.

The second and third payments of $25,000 were made to HSBC accounts only days apart in June 2004. In both, "Peter Mandelson" is the only person named, again as "BEN".

It is unclear if the three payments ever made it into any of the named accounts.

Images of the former UK ambassador to the US in his underwear have also been uncovered in the latest tranche of Epstein files.

In a redacted picture, he is seen standing next to a female, whose face is not visible.

Lord Mandelson has said he "cannot place the location or the woman and I cannot think what the circumstances were".

It is not known when or where the images of Lord Mandelson and the female were taken.

Being named or pictured in the files is not an indication of wrongdoing.

black_flag_4ever on February 1st, 2026 at 22:49 UTC »

US politicians are simply pretending this stuff isn’t out there.

SoftlyGyrating on February 1st, 2026 at 22:46 UTC »

Should've happened long ago. Mandelson's links to Epstein have been known about for years.

B-Z_B-S on February 1st, 2026 at 22:46 UTC »

Could the royal family please rescind the titles of everyone who kept talking with Epstein after his conviction? If literally nothing else, (and there are a lot of moral reasons to do it, too), it brings shame to the nobility as a whole to not do it.