Peter Mandelson should lose peerage, Downing Street spokesperson says

Peter Mandelson should no longer be a member of the House of Lords following his links to the disgraced paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, the Prime Minister’s spokesman has said.

Mandelson resigned from the Labour Party last night after it emerged Epstein made payments to the former UK ambassador to the United States in 2003 and 2004.

A Downing Street spokesman said Keir Starmer thinks Mandelson should no longer serve as a peer, but added that the Prime Minister does not have the power to strip him of his title.

Starmer has called on the House of Lords to modernise disciplinary procedures for those bringing the chamber into disrepute.

Mandelson, who was appointed to the House of Lords in 2008, served briefly as Trade Secretary in 1998 and as Northern Ireland Secretary from 1999 until he stood down as MP for Hartlepool in 2001. After Labour returned to Downing Street in 2024, Mandelson became US ambassador in February 2025 but resigned in September as more revelations about his long-standing association with the sex offender came to light.

JOIN LABOURLIST ‘IN CONVERSATION’ WITH STEVE ROTHERAM ON 3rd FEB at 17.15

The Prime Minister has called on the Cabinet Secretary to “urgently” review all available information on contact between Mandelson and Epstein.

It comes after it was revealed that internal government information relating to the potential sale of national assets was forwarded to Epstein by Mandelson in 2009.

Opposition parties have called for an investigation into Mandelson’s role in Labour governments, with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch urging the government to “set out how exactly [Mandelson] came to be appointed [as US ambassador] in the first place”.

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