Peter Mandelson, former British ambassador to the United States, in Washington, on February 26, 2025. CARL COURT / AP
The United Kingdom's former ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, is stepping down as a member of the House of Lords, said the upper house of parliament in an announcement on Tuesday, February 3, as a scandal over his ties to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein deepened.
The veteran Labour politician, a former UK government minister and European Union commissioner for trade, had announced he was resigning from the House of Lords as of Wednesday, Speaker Michael Forsyth told members. "The clerk of the parliaments has today [Tuesday] received notification from Lord Mandelson of his intention to retire from the House, effective from February 4," Forsyth said.
Mandelson, a back-room architect of Labour's revival as an electoral force under Tony Blair in the 1990s, quit the party on Sunday to avoid causing it "further embarrassment" from the slew of revelations.
Bank records released by the US authorities on Friday suggested that, in 2009, then-business secretary Mandelson forwarded an economic briefing to Epstein intended for then-premier Gordon Brown, captioning it: "Interesting note that's gone to the PM." Epstein also appeared to have transferred a total of $75,000 (€63,200) to accounts linked to Mandelson, in three payments between 2003 and 2004.
