British politician Peter Mandelson is quitting the House of Lords over questions about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. The Speaker of the House of Lords says Mandelson will retire effective Wednesday. He faces a potential police investigation over claims he passed sensitive government information to.
British politician Peter Mandelson is quitting the House of Lords as he faces new questions, and a potential police investigation, over his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The Speaker of the Lords, Michael Forsyth, said Mandelson has informed officials he will retire from Parliament’s upper chamber effective Wednesday.
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The announcement came as the British government prepared legislation to eject Mandelson from the Lords and remove the noble title, Lord Mandelson, that came with his seat in the chamber. Mandelson will retain the title after he retires unless lawmakers pass legislation to strip it from him — something that has not been done for more than a century.
The government also said it had sent a file of material to police who are looking into allegations that Mandelson passed sensitive government information to the disgraced financier.
A trove of more than 3 million pages of Epstein-related documents released by the U.S. Justice Department has brought excruciating revelations about 72-year-old Mandelson, who served in senior government roles under previous Labour governments and was U.K. ambassador to Washington until Prime Minister Keir Starmer fired him in September over his ties to Epstein.
The newly released files contain emails from Mandelson to Epstein passing on nuggets of political information, some of which critics say may have broken the law.
