{"id":19131,"date":"2026-02-05T19:45:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T19:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=19131"},"modified":"2026-02-05T19:45:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T19:45:29","slug":"how-the-epstein-scandal-has-shaken-the-british-government-to-its-core-peter-mandelson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=19131","title":{"rendered":"How the Epstein scandal has shaken the British government to its core | Peter Mandelson"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I<\/span>t was the one scandal that Donald Trump seemed unable to shake. No matter his best efforts to convince his supporter base that there was nothing to see here, the demands for the administration to release every document it had on the child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> only grew.<\/p>\n

Yet even after the most shocking revelations<\/a> in the latest drop about Trump\u2019s inner circle \u2013 involving everyone from Elon Musk to the Maga honcho Steve Bannon to the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, not to mention Trump himself \u2013 so far, it seems, the administration has escaped largely unscathed. Nobody has resigned, nobody has been fired, and certainly there is no sign that the US president is going anywhere.<\/p>\n

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There is, however, one political establishment that the Epstein scandal has shaken to its core \u2013 in the UK, where revelations in the files have sent a shock wave through the governing party that threatens to topple it entirely.<\/p>\n

Although the former Prince Andrew, the brother of King Charles, is the best known Briton to entangle himself in Epstein\u2019s web<\/a>, there is another figure who has brought the scandal back home with him.<\/p>\n

Peter Mandelson is another man with \u201cprince\u201d in his title, though his \u201cPrince of Darkness\u201d nickname was coined to reflect his reputation for being a master of the political dark arts. Few people in British politics have had careers as colourful and turbulent as his. Few people have managed to return from the political wilderness in the way he has.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Mandelson shopping with Jeffrey Epstein.<\/span> Photograph: US Department of Justice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There may be no coming back from this latest scandal.<\/p>\n

Police in London launched a criminal investigation<\/a> this week into allegations that Mandelson \u2013 who most recently was the British ambassador to the US, but whose history at the heart of British politics is long and laden with scandal \u2013 shared sensitive information with Epstein while serving as the government minister for business in 2009.<\/p>\n

Mandelson, 72, is accused of leaking government emails and market-sensitive information in the aftermath of the financial crash \u2013 including alerting Epstein that the British government would soon act to prop up the flagging euro. Separately, Mandelson and his now-husband apparently received several payments totalling at least $75,000. The whiff of selling government secrets is acrid.<\/p>\n

He has now quit the ruling Labour party, but the bleeding may not stop there: Keir Starmer<\/a>, the prime minister, faces serious questions about why someone as clearly risky as Mandelson was ever allowed back into the fold.<\/p>\n

To many in the UK, Mandelson is the long-running embodiment of the New Labour movement, having held high-profile roles in the Labour party over four decades, from strategist to government minister. Perhaps most crucially, he is perceived as a key figure during the remarkable run of electoral success under Tony Blair\u2019s centrist turn in the 1990s that helped bring Labour back in from the cold of the Conservative party\u2019s 18-year grip on power.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to distance himself \u2013 and explain why he hired Mandelson despite having some knowledge of his links to Epstein \u2013 Starmer told parliament in London on Wednesday that the politician had \u201cbetrayed our country\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Mandelson (right) was a key figure in Tony Blair\u2019s (left) centrist turn that helped bring Labour back to power in the 1990s. <\/span> Photograph: Paul McErlane\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHe lied repeatedly to my team, when asked about his relationship with Epstein before and during his tenure as ambassador,\u201d the British leader said. \u201cI regret appointing him. If I knew then what I know now, he would never have been anywhere near government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet Mandelson had already been forced out of government twice before: in 1998, when he resigned as trade and industry secretary after failing to disclose that he secretly received \u00a3375,000 to buy a house in London from a colleague who was being investigated over his business dealings; and in 2001, when he stepped down as Northern Ireland secretary after being accused of pulling strings to get a British passport for an Indian billionaire who had pledged \u00a31m towards the Millennium Dome project that Mandelson was heading.<\/p>\n

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Starmer brought him back to advise on how to win the 2024 election anyway, and after Labour\u2019s landslide victory the prime minister chose Mandelson to head the British embassy in Washington. Within a year, Mandelson was fired<\/a> after emails were published showing he maintained a friendship with Epstein. The latest cache of Epstein documents released by the US Department of Justice makes the previous allegations seem almost quaint by comparison.<\/p>\n

Still, with Mandelson being such a long-running presence in the Labour party, the impact of his fall from grace has been widely and deeply felt. Wes Streeting, the health secretary, who has made public his own designs on the leadership<\/a>, said on Wednesday that he felt personally shaken by the revelations about Mandelson, who had mentored and backed him as a rising parliamentarian.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot state strongly enough how bitterly that betrayal feels for those of us in the Labour party,\u201d he said<\/a>, \u201cwho feel very personally let down and also feel that he, as well as betraying two prime ministers, betraying our country and betraying Epstein\u2019s victims, has fundamentally betrayed our values and the things that motivate us and the things that brought us into politics, which is public service and national interest, not self-service and self-interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even his own MPs have warned that Starmer\u2019s days as prime minister are numbered, particularly after he admitted in parliament that he knew about Mandelson\u2019s friendship with Epstein before his appointment. \u201cThe most terminal mood is among the super-loyal,\u201d said one MP, while another said of Starmer\u2019s admission: \u201cYou could feel the atmosphere change; it was dark.\u201d<\/p>\n

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