Lord Mandelson has said he does not remember receiving payments totalling $75,000 (£54,000) from Jeffrey Epstein after documents appeared to show the paedophile financier sent him the sum were found in the Epstein files.
The peer may have been sent three separate payments of $25,000 (£18,000) by Epstein in 2003 and 2004, documents released by the US Department of Justice on Friday appear to show.
A spokesman for Lord Mandelson told Sky News: “Neither he nor his husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, has any record or recollection of receiving payments in 2003 or 2004 or know whether the documentation is authentic.”
Mandelson was the Labour MP for Hartlepool at the time.
The first, on 14 May 2003, was sent to a Barclays account held by Reinaldo Avila da Silva, Mandelson’s partner, listing Mandelson as BEN – typically short for the beneficiary of the funds.
Another document in the DOJ release suggests a potential payment of $25,000 on 24 June 2004, and apparently sent to an account which names Peter Mandelson as the account holder.
A third payment is dated 30 June 2004.
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Pressure is growing on both Lord Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to testify before the US Congress over their links to Jeffrey Epstein.
It comes after even more information linking the pair to the paedophile financier was released over the weekend.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has lost all his titles and associated royal roles due to his links to Epstein, while Lord Mandelson was sacked as the UK’s ambassador to the United States.
There have also been calls for the New Labour grandee to be stripped of his peerage. And on Sunday Trevor Phillips delivered a blunt message to his friend of nearly 50 years, warning Lord Mandelson that his political career is over.
Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Housing Secretary Steve Reed said: “If anybody has information or evidence that they can share that might help to understand what’s gone on and bring justice for these victims then they should share it.
“Whether that is Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, whether it’s Lord Mandelson, or whether it’s anybody else.”
The minister added that people have a “moral obligation to share what they know”.
In the latest tranche of Epstein files, it was revealed Lord Mandelson was “trying hard” to change government policy on bankers’ bonuses at Epstein’s behest in December 2009, in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
The documents also showed correspondence in September 2009 between Epstein and Lord Mandelson’s husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, who asked the financier to pay him thousands to fund an osteopathy course and other expenses.
Epstein was released from prison in July 2009, having pleaded guilty to trafficking a minor.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said that Andrew should give evidence to the US Congress, which is investigating Epstein, if asked. Now pressure is building on Lord Mandelson to do the same.
Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp told Sky News that both Andrew and Lord Mandelson should “give all the assistance they possibly can” to authorities investigating Epstein.
Trevor Phillips said at the start of his own show that he had known Lord Mandelson for almost half a century.
He went on: “I have not spoken personally to Lord Mandelson about the release this weekend of documents, messages, photographs and videos related to the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
“He was invited to join us this morning but declined.
“However, he has told this programme that neither he nor his husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, has any record or recollection of receiving payments in 2003 or 2004, or knows whether the documentation is authentic.
“He does accept that Reinaldo received a loan of $10,000 from Epstein whilst he, Mandelson, was a senior cabinet minister, and he acknowledges that in the same period, Epstein was amongst those who lobbied him on important policy matters.
“There’s no suggestion that Lord Mandelson has done anything unlawful.
“But I would claim the friend’s privilege to tell Peter that he has been, at best naive and foolish, at worst greedy and duplicitous.
“Whatever is true as far as politics and public office are concerned, for Peter Mandelson, this is the end.”
Read more:
Key findings from the latest Epstein files
Clear Epstein welcomed into Andrew’s family fold
Epstein sent thousands to Mandelson’s husband
Phillips finished: “The question now is whether the price of his misjudgement is to be paid only by the man himself, or whether those who trusted him and elevated him to the peerage, and to one of the highest diplomatic posts available, should also share in his ignominy.”
Asked to comment on Lord Mandelson and Epstein, Sir Keir said: “Obviously he was removed as ambassador in relation to the further information that came to light in September of last year and I’ve nothing more to say in relation to Peter Mandelson.”
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Lord Mandelson has previously offered an unequivocal apology to Epstein’s victims. Being pictured or mentioned in the Epstein files is not an indicator of any wrongdoing.
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Andrew paid millions to Virginia Giuffre, a woman he has claimed never to have met, to settle a civil sexual assault claim in 2022.
In a statement issued on 17 October 2025, the former prince reiterated that he “vigorously” denies the accusations against him.
