In the end, it was a scandal too far, even for Peter Mandelson.
The latest explosive Epstein revelations have forced him to resign from his beloved Labour Party, he says, to save the party from “further embarrassment”.
It’s difficult to imagine what could be more embarrassing than this weekend’s disclosure of alleged payments by Jeffrey Epstein to his partner, claims of lobbying a Labour chancellor on tax policy, and being photographed wearing nothing more than a T-shirt and a pair of underpants.
Announcing his resignation from the party on Sunday evening, he challenged some of the allegations in the Epstein files and repeated his claim that he had no record or recollection of the payments to his now husband.
He said he had written to Hollie Ridley, general secretary of the Labour Party, to say he was stepping down from his party membership.
But did he jump or was he pushed? Even if Sir Keir Starmer didn’t demand his resignation, such an astute political operator as Lord Mandelson could see he couldn’t remain in the party, and he had no alternative but to resign.
In his resignation letter, he wrote: “I have been further linked this weekend to the understandable furore surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and I feel regretful and sorry about this.
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“Allegations which I believe to be false that he made financial payments to me 20 years ago, and of which I have no record or recollection, need investigating by me.
“While doing this I do not wish to cause further embarrassment to the Labour Party and I am therefore stepping down from membership of the party.”
He added: “I want to take this opportunity to repeat my apology to the women and girls whose voices should have been heard long before now.
“I have dedicated my life to the values and success of the Labour Party and in taking my decision I believe I am acting in its best interests.”
His resignation came only hours after the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, called on the PM to suspend his membership of the party and launch an investigation into the financial allegations.
‘Mandelson is completely disgraced’
And the Conservatives responded to his resignation with a further attack, a spokesman claiming: “Lord Mandelson is completely disgraced.
“Yet Keir Starmer lacked the backbone to take action, allowing Mandelson to resign from the Labour Party instead of kicking him out.
“Keir Starmer and his chief of staff appointed Mandelson ambassador despite his relationship with Epstein and then refused to act even as the mountain of evidence against him grew.
“Given the prime minister’s appalling lack of judgment and the participation of his Downing Street operation, there must now be a full and thorough independent investigation.”
But the resignation must have been a horrible wrench as well as a humiliation for Lord Mandelson, who had – as he lamented – dedicated his life to the party.
A scandal-tainted career
Indeed, he was born into the Labour Party. His grandfather was Herbert Morrison, one of the giants of Clement Attlee’s post-war government.
But it was his attraction to the rich and famous and his fondness for the trappings of wealth that brought about what will be the final downfall of his scandal-tainted career.
He famously told tech executives when he was Sir Tony Blair’s trade and industry secretary in 1998: “We are intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich.”
Then, acutely aware of the risk of damaging headlines, the former spin doctor known as the “Prince of Darkness”, added hurriedly: “As long as they pay their taxes.”
His final demise comes just months after Sir Keir was forced to sack him from the top diplomatic post of UK ambassador to the US over his association with the convicted sex offender Epstein.
But Epstein was by no means the first Mandelson scandal. He had to resign from Sir Tony’s cabinet twice, first over an undeclared bank loan and then over intervening in a passport application by a top Indian businessman.
A controversial and divisive figure
Over four decades, nearly all on the frontline of British politics, he was a consummate political networker, but also one of the most divisive figures in public life and his appointment as ambassador was seen by critics as an act of cronyism by Sir Keir.
Acknowledging that Lord Mandelson – awarded a peerage in 2008 by Gordon Brown – was a controversial and divisive figure, Sir Tony declared in 1996: “My project will be complete when the Labour Party learns to love Peter Mandelson.”
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The Washington role is seen as the most glittering and important diplomatic post in the UK government. The perks of the job include the luxurious ambassador’s residence in Massachusetts Avenue, a magnificent Queen Anne mansion designed by top architect Sir Edwin Lutyens.
When he appointed him as ambassador, Sir Keir saw Lord Mandelson as a skilful and persuasive link to the president, with his trade experience from his time as a cabinet minister and Brussels commissioner a vital qualification for the job.
Never one for false modesty, Lord Mandelson claimed that when he first walked into the Oval Office the president said to him: “God, you’re a good-looking fellow, aren’t you?”
Diplomatic triumphs
Lord Mandelson was credited with several diplomatic triumphs in Washington. He played a vital role in ensuring the UK escaped the worst of Trump’s tariffs and he was instrumental in securing a much sought-after trade deal between the UK and the US.
And his silky PR skills were displayed when during Sir Keir’s first visit to the White House in February, the PM theatrically pulled out of his inside pocket a letter from King Charles inviting the US president to visit the UK.
It was a classic Lord Mandelson stunt and confirmed he’d lost none of the flair for presentation he’d first deployed when he was Labour leader Neil Kinnock’s spin doctor in the 1980s.
Lord Mandelson’s high-profile political career began as a TV producer until his appointment as Labour’s director of communications under Kinnock in 1985.
He was seen as a brilliant if ruthless spin doctor, who masterminded the birth of New Labour but would berate newspaper editors when unfavourable stories were written by their political journalists.
Another classic Lord Mandelson attempt to kill an embarrassing story was to tell the journalist who wrote or broadcast it in a sneering voice: “That is a story that I believe will remain an exclusive.”
He became MP for Hartlepool in 1992 and helped propel Sir Tony to the leadership of the party after John Smith’s death in 1994, a move that led to a bitter feud with Mr Brown.
There’s an amusing story about Mandelson in Hartlepool, which he claimed is a myth and blames Kinnock for. It’s claimed he ordered “some of that delicious guacamole” in a fish and chip shop, mistaking mushy peas for avocado dip.
It was a perfect Mandelson story, ridiculing his metropolitan tastes and ignorance of working-class life. But he claims the mistake was made by a young American woman student who was helping Labour’s campaign.
‘I’m a fighter, not a quitter’
His first cabinet job, trade and industry secretary in 1998, lasted only five months after he was forced to quit after failing to declare a home loan from Labour millionaire Geoffrey Robinson to his building society.
His resignation was similar in one respect to the demise of former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner last year, in that it was over irregularities in buying a property: in Hove in her case, in fashionable Notting Hill in his.
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He bounced back as Northern Ireland secretary in 1999 and was said to enjoy the luxury of Hillsborough Castle, which went with the job. But he was forced to resign a second time over claims he helped businessman Srichand Hinduja with an application for UK citizenship.
When he held his seat in Hartlepool in the 2001 general election, Mandelson made a passionate and defiant victory speech at his count in which he declared: “I’m a fighter, not a quitter.”
Yet three years later he did quit as an MP, when he became a trade commissioner in Brussels, serving a four-year term during which he had a spectacular row with French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who accused him of selling out French farmers in trade talks.
There were more controversies arising from his time in Brussels. In 2006, it was reported that he received a free cruise on a yacht from an Italian mogul who was said to have benefited from tariffs on Chinese shoes when Mandelson was EU trade commissioner.
Reports also claimed he had been lent a private jet by banking and business tycoon Nat Rothschild. And it was later reported that he had a holiday in August 2008 on the yacht of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska off the Greek island of Corfu.
Mr Deripaska was said to have benefited from a cut in EU aluminium tariffs introduced by Mandelson. But prime minister Brown said Mandelson’s dealings with Mr Deripaska had been “found to be above board”.
His political comeback
After Brussels came perhaps his most spectacular and unexpected political comeback, when in 2008 his old foe Brown, by now prime minister but facing challenges to his leadership, brought him back as business secretary with a peerage.
A year later, Brown awarded him the grand title, previously held by Michael Heseltine under John Major, of first secretary of state, a position he held until Labour’s election defeat in 2010.
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To the end, Lord Mandelson remained a devoted Blairite rather than a soulmate of Mr Brown. And in the run-up to Sir Keir’s 2024 general election victory last year he was back in the fold, offering advice on campaigning and policy.
He got his reward with the plum job of ambassador in Washington. But his links to a very American scandal, involving the disgraced financier and sex offender Epstein, pushed him out of political life.
He may have hoped for yet another comeback, but that won’t happen now. There are calls from opposition MPs for him to be stripped of his peerage. Currently on leave of absence from the Lords, he says he doesn’t plan to return.
But what will hurt him most will be being forced to sever his link with the Labour Party that he was born into and which he served all his life. Until now. It’s over.
