Britain\u2019s government found itself at the centre of a potentially fatal political storm this week, following the latest release of files<\/a> connected to U.S. investigations into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n Disclosures from the Epstein investigation have already rocked one British institution\u2014the country\u2019s monarchy\u2014with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, stripped of his royal title late last year. The younger brother of King Charles III, he now faces renewed calls for accountability following the U.S. Justice Department\u2019s release of more than 3 million Epstein-related files last week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But news in the country over the past few days has been dominated by the way the fallout has spread to 10 Downing Street, the official residence of Britain\u2019s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is struggling to quell a controversy centered on his former ambassador to Washington D.C., Peter Mandelson.<\/p>\n A major figure in Starmer\u2019s ruling Labour Party, Mandelson was sacked as ambassador<\/a> in September following disclosures about a closer than previously known relationship with Epstein, who died in his New York prison cell<\/a> in 2019. The latest batch of emails go further, as it appears Mandelson might have leaked sensitive government information to Epstein in 2009. If proven to be true, it could result in him being prosecuted by British authorities.<\/p>\n That he was named ambassador at all, meanwhile, is threatening Starmer\u2019s premiership. Previously forced to resign from ministerial positions in 1998 and then again in 2001, Mandelson\u2019s relationship with Epstein was known when Starmer dispatched him to the U.S. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe truth has to come out. That’s the only way we maintain our credibility and regain trust,\u201d Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a lawmaker from Starmer\u2019s Labour Party, tells TIME. <\/p>\n The controversy has spiralled into \u201cone of the most significant scandals\u201d the Labour Party has faced in recent history.<\/p>\n \u201cMPs [Members of Parliament] are really disappointed that we have wasted this much political capital on keeping this one man [Mandelson] in the job. I think [the public] will feel betrayed by us for not doing what we say that we do, which is, believe women, and stand up for those who are the survivors of sexual abuse,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n At the heart of the latest scandal are disclosures connected to Mandelson\u2019s time under former Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2008-2010.<\/p>\n Serving as Business Secretary, he was a key figure during the financial crisis, privy to top secret economic plans and policies\u2014some of which he may have passed on to the late sex offender, according to the latest batch of the Epstein files.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In one recently released email<\/a>, for instance, he appeared to tell Epstein he would lobby other government officials in an effort to reduce a tax on bankers\u2019 bonuses. In another<\/a>, he appears to have forwarded an internal government report to Epstein which showed ways the U.K. might raise funds after the 2008 financial crisis.<\/p>\n Mandelson also appears to have tipped off Epstein that Brown would be resigning in<\/a> 2010, and that the E.U. would announce<\/a> a \u20ac500 billion to stem the Greek debt crisis.<\/p>\n \u201cAn initial review of the documents released in relation to Jeffrey Epstein by the U.S. Department of Justice has found that they contain likely market sensitive information surrounding the 2008 financial crash and official activities thereafter to stabilise the economy,\u201d said a spokesperson for Starmer earlier this week. \u201cOnly people operating in an official capacity had access to this information in strict handling conditions to ensure it was not available to anyone who could potentially benefit from it financially.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Beyond the sharing of confidential information, the Epstein files also appear to show financial transfers<\/a> totalling $75,000 from the late sex offender to accounts linked to Mandelson or his partner, Reinaldo Avila da Silva. Mandelson has reportedly<\/a> said that he doesn\u2019t recall receiving the money and will need to look into whether the documents are legitimate.<\/p>\n TIME has contacted Mandelson for further comment.<\/p>\n Amid the accumulating accusations, the U.K.\u2019s Metropolitan Police confirmed<\/a> it has \u201claunched an investigation into a 72-year-old man, a former government minister, for misconduct in public office offences.\u201d<\/p>\n In an update on Friday afternoon, local time, police revealed<\/a> two properties linked to Mandelson had been searched in relation to the probe. Mandelson has not yet \u201cbeen arrested and enquiries are ongoing,\u201d the police said.<\/p>\n While those inquiries unfold, the political toll is already mounting. Long regarded as a key architect of the Labour\u2019s electoral comeback in the 90s, Mandelson has resigned from the party, saying that he wanted to avoid causing it \u201cfurther embarrassment.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n And he\u2019s also quit the House of Lords, relinquishing his powers as a lawmaker by leaving the upper chamber of the British Parliament. He does however retain the title of Lord\u2014something that can only be taken away from him by the passing of a new law.\u00a0<\/p>\n Starmer, who publicly apologized to Epstein\u2019s victims on Thursday, has explained Mandelson\u2019s appointment as ambassador in February 2025 by saying that he had \u201clied repeatedly\u201d about his ties to Epstein. \u201cI regret appointing him. If I knew then what I know now, he would never have been anywhere near government,\u201d the Prime Minister said, attempting to distance himself\u2014and his premiership\u2014from the worsening scandal around Mandelson.<\/p>\n Yet as politicians from his own camp and that of the opposition Conservative Party clamour for answers, it is unclear whether he will succeed.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s something that’s had the potential to engulf this government in a way that I don’t think any other scandal has in its very young two years,\u201d Clive Lewis, another lawmaker from Starmer\u2019s ruling Labour Party tells TIME. \u201cFrankly, it’s disastrous.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI’d like to see those who have betrayed this country, betrayed our party, betrayed our movement, to face the full force of the legal system and the law,\u201d says Lewis.<\/p>\n As the Mandelson scandal shook Parliament, meanwhile, tremors from the Epstein files once again reached the British royal family.<\/p>\n Documents released by the DOJ last week<\/a> included a photograph of Andrew leaning over a woman on the floor. The woman\u2019s face had been redacted and it\u2019s unclear when or where the photographs were taken. The photograph has sparked renewed questions over Andrew\u2019s relationship with Epstein and his own conduct.<\/p>\n Police are also reviewing a fresh allegation that Epstein sent a woman to Andrew at the Royal Lodge residence in Windsor in 2010.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are aware of reports about a woman said to have been taken to an address in Windsor in 2010 for sexual purposes,\u201d a Thames Valley Police spokesperson told TIME on Wednesday. \u201cWe are assessing the information in line with our established procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Andrew\u2019s relationship with Epstein, something which he said he did not regret<\/a> after the sex offender\u2019s death, has long been scrutinized. The royal was famously interviewed on BBC\u2019s Newsnight<\/em><\/a> in 2019 about the nature of the friendship.<\/p>\n Andrew was accused of sexual abuse himself by one of Epstein\u2019s victims, the late Virginia Giuffre. He has repeatedly denied the allegations. In 2022, Andrew settled a sexual abuse lawsuit<\/a> with Giuffre for an undisclosed amount.<\/p>\n A month before the settlement, Andrew was stripped of his key military titles and royal patronages. He was stripped of the remainder of his titles in late 2025, after additional allegations by Giuffre came to light in her posthumous memoir<\/a>.<\/p>\n This week, Andrew\u2019s younger brother Prince Edward was asked about the release of the new files during a summit in Dubai. Offering a rare royal comment, he said: \u201cIt\u2019s really important, always, to remember the victims, and who are the victims in all of this? [There are] a lot of victims in this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Edward\u2019s remarks are \u201csignificant\u201d and \u201cmay well be the precursor to other members of the royal family making comments that we didn’t expect,\u201d says royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cBear in mind that various royal palaces have been mentioned in emails. It’s embarrassing, because when this occurred, he was a senior working royal,\u201d Fitzwilliams adds. \u201cIt is another nail in the reputational coffin.\u201d<\/p>\nA shaken government<\/strong><\/h2>\n
A splintered royal family<\/strong><\/h2>\n