Former British government minister Peter Mandelson has resigned as a member of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party after new reports about his links to disgraced American financier Jeffrey Epstein, media reported on Sunday.
Mandelson, who was sacked by Starmer as Britain’s ambassador to the United States last year after previous revelations about his connections to Epstein, said he did not wish to cause “further embarrassment” to Labour, according to reports.
“This weekend I have been further linked to the understandable furore surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, and I am remorseful and saddened by this,” Mandelson said in a letter to the Labor Party reported by the bbc and other news organizations, which Reuters couldn’t get it right away.
Mandelson said he believed allegations about financial payments made to him by Epstein, which appeared in British media based on files released by the U.S. Department of Justice, were false and that he would investigate them.
“While I do this, I do not wish to cause further embarrassment to the Labor Party and I am therefore leaving my membership in the party,” the letter said.
Mandelson was key to the Labor Party’s electoral success when Tony Blair was prime minister, starting in the 1990s.
He came under scrutiny last year after US lawmakers released documents, including a letter in which he called Epstein “my best friend”, prompting his dismissal as Britain’s envoy in Washington.
Mandelson also had a turbulent previous career in domestic politics. In 1998, he resigned as trade minister over a loan he received from a fellow minister to buy a house amid questions about a conflict of interest.
A second cabinet stint also ended with a resignation in 2001, when he was forced to resign over his alleged involvement in a passport scandal involving an Indian billionaire. He was later cleared of wrongdoing.
Mandelson, a former European Union trade commissioner, is on leave as a member of the upper house of Britain’s national parliament.
Separately, Starmer said on Saturday that Britain’s former Prince Andrew should testify before a US congressional committee following new revelations about his ties to Epstein.
