Police are investigating a number of reports relating to alleged misconduct in a public office after Lord Mandelson was accused of leaking sensitive information to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The UK’s former ambassador to the US features a number of times in millions of pages released by the US Department of Justice as part of the so-called “Epstein files”.
The country’s top civil servant has been tasked with carrying out a review after documents apparently showed Lord Mandelson passing information to Epstein while the peer was a cabinet minister in Gordon Brown’s government.
Documents released by the US Department of Justice indicate Epstein was sent details of internal discussions from the heart of the UK government after the global financial crisis.
Lord Mandelson, the then-business secretary, also appeared to tell Epstein he would lobby ministers over a tax on bankers’ bonuses in 2009, and to confirm an imminent bailout package for the euro the day before it was announced in 2010.
In a statement issued on Monday, Metropolitan Police Commander Ella Marriott said: “We are aware of the further release of millions of court documents in relation to Jeffrey Epstein by the United States Department of Justice.
“Following this release and subsequent media reporting, the Met has received a number of reports relating to alleged misconduct in a public office.
“The reports will all be reviewed to determine if they meet the criminal threshold for investigation.”
Following the document dump on Friday, Sir Keir Starmer urged Lord Mandelson to quit the House of Lords, with Downing Street saying the Prime Minister believes he should “not be a member… or use the title”.
Downing Street said Sir Keir had asked Cabinet Secretary Sir Chris Wormald to conduct “an urgent review” looking at “all available information regarding Mandelson’s contacts with Epstein during his period as a government minister”.
Former prime minister Mr Brown said he had asked Sir Chris to investigate the disclosure of “confidential and market sensitive information” during the global financial crisis.
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