UK police on Feb. 6 confirmed officers were searching properties linked to former UK Ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson in connection with alleged misconduct in public office, following the release of the latest Jeffrey Epstein documents by the U.S. Department of Justice.
“I can confirm that officers from the Met’s Central Specialist Crime team are in the process of carrying out search warrants at two addresses, one in the Wiltshire area, and another in the Camden area,” Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Hayley Sewart said in a statement.
“The searches are related to an ongoing investigation into misconduct in public office offences, involving a 72-year-old man.”
The Metropolitan Police said no arrest was made and enquiries are ongoing. Mandelson has not commented publicly.
A criminal investigation into alleged misconduct in a public office was announced by police after the latest release of the Epstein files.
On Feb. 3, a UK Cabinet spokesman said the government had passed material to the police after an initial review of the latest tranche of documents found they contained “likely market-sensitive information” and that official handling safeguards had been “compromised.”
Starmer told his Cabinet last week that the alleged passing of highly sensitive government information to Epstein while former Prime Minister Gordon Brown was in power was disgraceful.
The Cabinet spokesman said that the government had passed information to the police, relating to the revelations in the files, while Brown said he had also written to Metropolitan Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley with information relevant to Mandelson’s alleged disclosure of confidential information.
The Epoch Times reached out to Mandelson for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
Starmer Apology
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Feb. 5 apologized to Epstein’s victims for appointing Mandelson as UK ambassador to the United States when some details of his association with the late sex offender were already known.
Starmer, who is facing a barrage of criticism and calls to resign over his judgment, said at an event in Hastings that he was “sorry for having believed Mandelson’s lies.”
The prime minister insisted that “none of us knew the depth of the darkness” of Mandelson’s relationship with the convicted sex offender when he was selected for the role.
Starmer said he shared the “anger and frustration” of many of his Labour Party colleagues about the scandal, but vowed to continue as prime minister.
Starmer said Mandelson, 72, was asked directly about the nature of his relationship with Epstein, whether he had stayed with the registered sex offender after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, and whether he had accepted gifts from the financier.
At the time of Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador in December 2024, it had been reported in both U.S. and UK media that he had stayed at Epstein’s New York townhouse in 2009.
“The information now available makes clear that the answers he gave were lies,” Starmer said. “He portrayed Epstein as someone he barely knew. And when that became clear and it was not true, I sacked him. Such deceit is incompatible with public service.”
Mandelson, one of the chief architects of New Labour and an influential figure in UK politics for more than 40 years, was fired as UK ambassador to the United States in September 2025.
“The victims of Epstein have lived with trauma that most of us can barely comprehend, and they’ve had to relive it again and again,” Starmer said.
“I want to say this: I am sorry, sorry for what was done to you, sorry that so many people with power failed you, sorry for having believed Mandelson’s lies and appointed him, and sorry that even now you’re forced to watch this story unfold in public once again.”
Asked by a reporter whether his premiership would survive the storm, he said, “I was elected in on a mandate in 2024 to change the country for the better. That is what we’re doing.”
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch urged unhappy Labour MPs to work with the opposition to force a vote of no confidence in Starmer.
“If they want the change they know the country needs, come and speak to my whips and let’s talk seriously about a vote of no confidence to force the moment,” she said at a Westminster press conference on Feb. 5.
Amid the scandal, Mandelson stepped down from his role as lawmaker in the House of Lords earlier this week and resigned from the Labour Party.
He has also been removed from the Privy Council, a committee of senior officials that advises King Charles III, and faces being stripped of his Lordship title by an act of Parliament.
A parliamentary vote was averted on Feb. 4 when the government gave in to MPs’ demands and agreed that the Intelligence and Security Committee—made up of lawmakers from several parties—would decide which papers should be published, rather than a senior civil servant as Starmer had proposed.
Labour Party lawmaker Simon Opher welcomed the independent body’s oversight of the publication. Labour “promised to put trust back into politics after years of Tory sleaze – not perpetuate it,” he said.
No timeline has been released for when the documents relating to Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador will be released.
‘Bigger than Profumo Affair’
During a Feb. 5 press conference in South Wales, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage described Starmer’s apology as “not quite believable,” adding that the scandal was bigger than the notorious 1960s affair which led to the resignation of War Secretary John Profumo.
“This is the biggest scandal for 100 years. This is way bigger than the Profumo affair back in the early 60s,” Farage said. This is sex, money, corruption, the use of confidential information.”
The latest tranche of more than 3 million files released includes numerous email exchanges between Mandelson and Epstein, who was found dead aged 66 in his New York prison cell in 2019. The financier was awaiting trial on multiple charges of sex trafficking girls and young women. His death was ruled a suicide.
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