UK PM Keir Starmer believes Mandelson should leave Lords over Epstein links

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he believes Peter Mandelson should not be a member of the House of Lords over his links to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The PM has ordered an “urgent” investigation into Lord Mandelson’s contact with Epstein while he was a government minister, No 10 has said.

Emails released in the US on Friday suggest Mandelson forwarded internal government information to Epstein when he was the UK’s business secretary in 2009.

Mandelson resigned from Starmer’s Labour Party on Sunday night, saying he wanted to save the party “further embarrassment”.

Documents also suggest Epstein paid him $75,000 in three separate transactions in 2003 and 2004 – Mandelson said he has no record of the payments and believes they are “false” but said he will investigate.

Separate emails released on Friday also suggest Epstein invited Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to have dinner with a 26-year-old Russian woman. Several girls mentioned in the Epstein files are Russian.

The emails do not indicate any wrongdoing and the BBC has contacted Mountbatten-Windsor for a response. He has repeatedly denied all allegations of wrongdoing connected to Epstein.

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