PRIME Minister Keir Starmer does not support Peter Mandelson remaining in the House of Lords, but does not have the power to remove him, Downing Street has said.
It comes with Mandelson, whom Starmer personally appointed ambassador to the US in 2024, facing heightened scrutiny over his extension links to the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein due to fresh revelations in files published in the US.
In an email exchange from 2009, Mandelson, then the business secretary, appeared to tell Epstein he would lobby ministers over a tax on bankers’ bonuses.
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The emails released by the US Department of Justice also show Epstein was sent internal discussions from the heart of the UK Government in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.
Bank statements from 2003 and 2004 appeared to show Mandelson received payments totalling 75,000 US dollars (£54,735) from the financier.
Epstein is also said to have paid for an osteopathy course for Mandelson’s husband.
Downing Street said Starmer believes Mandelson “should not be a member of the House of Lords or use the title”, but the Prime Minister does not have the power to strip him of his peerage.
The country’s top civil servant, Cabinet Secretary Chris Wormald, has also been tasked with urgently reviewing information on links between Mandelson and Epstein while he was a Government minister.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister believes that Peter Mandelson should not be a member of the House of Lords or use the title. However, the Prime Minister does not have the power to remove it.”
Starmer urged the Lords to work with the Government to modernise disciplinary procedures to make it easier to remove disgraced peers.
Under the current arrangements, a new law would be required to remove a peerage, something that last happened more than 100 years ago to deal with members of the nobility who sided with the Germans in the First World War.
Downing Street said the Prime Minister has also asked Wormald to review “all available information regarding Peter Mandelson’s contacts with Jeffrey Epstein during his period as a Government minister”.
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Mandelson resigned his Labour membership late on Sunday night and the party has said he was facing disciplinary action.
Last September, Starmer backed Mandelson despite revelations that he had called Epstein his "best pal".
Challenged at Prime Minister's Questions, Starmer said that "full due process was followed" during his appointment as US ambassador.
However, he was forced to fire Mandelson the following day after it was revealed that he had coached Epstein through his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008.
At the time, Tory MP Neil O’Brien said: "This raises massive questions. It is not just that Peter Mandelson said that Epstein was his best pal and that he loved him. It wasn't just that he brokered a deal for him while he was business secretary.
"We now, of course, know that he was working for Epstein's early release after he was convicted.
"And the simple question is, is the minister now saying that the Prime Minister did not know about any of this at the point where he was appointed?"
It comes after the SNP called for an "urgent inquiry" into Mandelson's role in various Labour governments after further details of his relationship with Epstein were published on Friday.
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