𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Lord Mandelson has spoken out publicly since further damning and embarrassing emails between him and Jeffrey Epstein were released by the US government. 

The former ambassador is on the brink of losing his peerage and remaining honours as a result of the new revelations, which suggest he routinely leaked confidential and market-sensitive government secrets to the billionaire.

Amid demands for a police investigation into whether he breached laws around holding public office, Lord Mandelson has now broken his silence with an astonishing statement of praise for his former paedophile friend.

Speaking to The Times, Lord Mandelson described Epstein as “Outwardly, completely charming and engaging. He was very clever.” It came after he described Epstein as a “classic sociopath”.

He also praised the investor’s dinner parties, using the interview as an opportunity to name-drop major public figures he was set up to dine with thanks to Mr Epstein.

He continued: “I remember one of the two dinner parties of his I went to.

“I sat next to someone in charge of brain research at Harvard. I was sitting opposite the founders of Google. At the other end of the table was Bill Gates.

“I think I also brushed past Noam Chomsky on a later date, but he wasn’t having much to do with me given that he was a Marxist philosopher and I was a Blairite.”

Speaking about the current furore surrounding him, Lord Mandelson told the paper that he will not let the crisis bring an end to his involvement in politics.

He said: “A friend has said to me, ‘Remember, tough times don’t last. Tough people do … That’s the belief I held on to. Someone else said, ‘Remember, you are the same person with the same knowledge and the same skills you had before this crisis hit you. This crisis has not taken any of those things away from you.’ ”

Addressing his future, Lord Mandelson set out: “I want to contribute ideas that enable Britain to strengthen and to work for all, in every part of the country.”

The peer was subject to fury from MPs on Monday, as a number called on him to be prosecuted.

The Met Police received formal calls to launch an investigation from both Reform UK and the SNP, with Robert Jenrick telling MPs that the former ambassador had “clearly broken the law … and should be tried for his offences”.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has instructed the Cabinet Secretary to review all available information regarding Lord Mandelson’s contact with Epstein during the peer’s time as a government minister, and to report back to him “as a matter of urgency”.

The Prime Minister said that he believes Lord Mandelson should no longer sit in he House of Lords after further revelations about the peer’s links to Epstein emerged.

However, the Government opened itself up to fury by refusing to introduce a bespoke Bill that would strip Lord Mandelson of his title and role in Parliament.

Minister Darren Jones insisted that there was a backlog of peers who need to be stripped of their honours, and that the focus should be on introducing wholesale reform of the peerages process that avoids the need for individual legislation to remove someone from the upper chamber.

Sir Keir urged the Lords to work with the Government to modernise disciplinary procedures to make it easier to remove disgraced peers.