\n<\/p>\n
Lord Mandelson should testify before the US Congress about his links to Jeffrey Epstein, a government minister has said, as documents appeared to show the late child sex offender sent the former US ambassador $75,000.<\/p>\n
Emails and other documents released by the US justice department on Friday shed new light on the closeness of the relationship between Epstein and the former UK business secretary.<\/p>\n
Bank statements appear to show three separate payments of $25,000 referencing the former MP for Hartlepool being sent from Epstein\u2019s JP Morgan bank accounts.<\/p>\n
Contacted about the statements, Mandelson said: \u201cI have no record and no recollection of receiving these sums and do not know if the documents are authentic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mandelson reiterated that he had been wrong to believe Epstein and continue his association with him, adding: \u201cI deeply regret doing so and apologise unequivocally to the women and girls who suffered.\u201d.<\/p>\n
On Sunday housing, communities and local government secretary Steve Reed said Mandelson, who was sacked as British ambassador to Washington last year, had \u201ca moral obligation\u201d to share what he knew about the disgraced financier. He told Sky News that anyone with information or evidence should share it \u201cwhether that is Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, whether it\u2019s Lord Mandelson, or whether it\u2019s anybody else\u201d, adding: \u201c[T]hey have a moral obligation to share what they knew so that the victims can help find the justice that they\u2019ve been denied for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Reed refused to be drawn on whether Mandelson, who has been on a leave of absence from the House of Lords since he took up his role as US ambassador and does not currently have the Labour whip, should possibly be stripped of his peerage. \u201cI think before taking any action like that, we need to understand exactly what\u2019s happened,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Pressure is mounting on Keir Starmer to take decisive action to block any return of Mandelson to the House of Lords as a Labour peer, after the emails released on Friday also appear to show the then business secretary assuring Epstein in December 2009 that he was \u201ctrying hard\u201d to change government policy on bankers\u2019 bonuses at his request.<\/p>\n
A statement, dated 14 May 2003 and first reported by the Financial Times, shows a payment sent to a Barclays Bank account where Mandelson\u2019s then partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva is named as \u201cA\/C\u201d, typically an abbreviation for account. \u201cPeter Mandelson\u201d is named on the account as \u201cBEN\u201d, often an abbreviation for beneficiary.<\/p>\n
The second and third payments of $25,000 appear to have been made to HSBC accounts, days apart in June 2004. In both, \u201cPeter Mandelson\u201d is identified as \u201cBEN\u201d.<\/p>\n
It is unclear if the three payments ever made it into any of the named accounts and being named or pictured in the files is not an indication of wrongdoing. Sources close to Mandelson said the statements could not be taken at face value and contained errors. They said the US justice department had previously stated that the Epstein files may contain false images, documents or videos.<\/p>\n
In emails also released on Friday, Mandelson, then a cabinet member of Gordon Brown\u2019s government, appears to agree to try to change government policy on taxing bankers\u2019 bonuses.<\/p>\n
In an email exchange on 15 December 2009, in which email addresses are redacted, Epstein asked Mandelson if the policy could be changed, writing: \u201cany [sic] real chance of making the tax only on the cash portion of the bankers bonus\u201d. Mandelson replied: \u201cTrying hard to amend as I explained to Jes last night. Treasury digging in but I am on case.\u201d<\/p>\n
The emails came months after correspondence appeared to show that Mandelson\u2019s husband, da Silva, had successfully asked the financier to pay him \u00a310,000 in September 2009 to fund an osteopathy course and other expenses.<\/p>\n
Returning from a trip to China, the prime minister was asked whether a \u00a310,000 payment to Lord Mandelson\u2019s partner at a time when he was a Labour business secretary fell far from the standards he expected of a peer. \u201cIn relation to Peter Mandelson, obviously he was removed as ambassador in relation to the further information that came to light in September of last year,\u201d Starmer said. \u201cI\u2019ve nothing more to say in relation to Peter Mandelson.\u201d<\/p>\n
Images of the former UK ambassador to the US in his underwear were also released in the latest tranche of Epstein files. Responding to a redacted picture, where he is seen standing next to a female, Mandelson said he \u201ccannot place the location or the woman and I cannot think what the circumstances were\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mandelson should now offer to give evidence to the US congress, said Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine, a member of the women and equalities select committee. \u201cI think anyone who has any knowledge of what Epstein was doing has a moral responsibility to his victims to help the authorities in any way they can,\u201d she said. \u201cThe public also has a right to hold its politicians to a certain standard and we must ensure that happens in this absolutely disgusting situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labour MP Andy McDonald said Mandelson should be thrown out of the party. \u201cHe\u2019s got to go, and Keir has got to demonstrate that he will not put up with this and show some moral leadership on the issue,\u201d he said. \u201cThere has got to be a line drawn, otherwise it\u2019s going to be a running sore for the party for weeks and months ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lord Mandelson should testify before the US Congress about his links to Jeffrey Epstein, a government minister has said, as documents appeared to show the late child sex offender sent the former US ambassador $75,000. Emails and other documents released by the US justice department on Friday shed new light on the closeness of the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[4579,3703,5278,3695,1354,1994,15391],"class_list":{"0":"post-43409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-congress","9":"tag-epstein","10":"tag-links","11":"tag-mandelson","12":"tag-minister","13":"tag-peter","14":"tag-testify"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}