Third time lucky, goes the proverb. Peter Mandelson has been re-toppled. This most vivid of political butterflies has previously, twice, escaped his critics’ nets; this time it could be the end.
His involvement with Jeffrey Epstein repeated a pattern: fluttering too close to money. In 1998 Mandelson resigned as Trade and Industry Secretary after accepting an undeclared house loan from multi-millionaire MP Geoffrey Robinson. In 2001 he quit as Northern Ireland Secretary after helping Indian billionaire Srichand Hinduja’s application for a British passport. This time the stonkingly rich ‘best pal’ was Epstein, a paedophile. What lured Mandelson to such a slug? Imaginations will run wild but the basic draw does not seem to have been sex. It was connections.
Epstein knew important people. He offered access not only to the likes of Bill Clinton and Donald Trump but also to capitalism’s venal nabobs and their long-legged consorts. These people floated on a nimbus of opulence, sun oil and private-jet privilege. With one telephone call they could fix deals and bypass business blockages.
To the middle-class socialist boy from Hampstead Garden Suburb whose own career progress had often been banjaxed by rivals, such executive despatch was mesmerising. The fan-wafted villas were delicious, yes, but more than that Mandelson’s eyes swam at these demi-gods’ apparent immunity from regulatory interference. Here was real power. That, to Peter, was as salty as any beluga caviar.
