Lord Mandelson is under mounting pressure to resign after it was claimed he worked with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein on a £1billion deal involving a taxpayer-owned bank.
Emails seen by The Telegraph reportedly show that Mandelson, who was business secretary at the time, took advice from Epstein during the 2010 sale of an RBS energy trading arm to JP Morgan, just months after the disgraced financier was released from jail for child sex offences.
Epstein is said to have introduced Mandelson to Jes Staley, then a top banker at JP Morgan who has since been banned from the City over his links to the paedophile, and even referred to Mandelson affectionately as ‘Petie’ in messages.
The Labour peer’s relationship with Epstein has come under extraordinary scrutiny after the release of a ten-page letter in which he described him as his ‘best pal’.
The note, written for Epstein’s 50th birthday album, gushed: ‘Once upon a time, an intelligent, sharp-witted man they call “mysterious” parachuted into my life.’
On another page beside a picture of Epstein’s private island, Mandelson wrote about him entertaining ‘in one of his glorious homes he likes to share with his friends (yum yum)’.
The message ended: ‘But wherever he is in the world, he remains my best pal! Happy Birthday Jeffrey. We love you!!’
The album, compiled by Epstein’s former lover Ghislaine Maxwell – now serving 20 years in a US jail for sex trafficking – was published on Monday by the US House Oversight Committee, which is investigating Epstein’s sordid network of friends.
Photographs included in the file show Mandelson wearing a bathrobe and laughing with Epstein on the veranda of his Caribbean retreat, Little St James.
Cathy Alexander, Epstein’s former housekeeper, told The Telegraph that Mandelson visited the island in 2002 with his now-husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva.
Victims of Epstein have demanded Mandelson be sacked as Britain’s ambassador to the US, a role he was given by Sir Keir Starmer in February.
Sarah Ransome, one of Epstein’s British victims, said: ‘Something is really, really wrong here. Peter Mandelson should not be ambassador. He needs to be fired. He is unsuitable to be ambassador.’
She added: ‘Keir Starmer must have known all this. Everybody knew about Peter Mandelson’s close friendship with Epstein.’
Tory MPs have called for a full investigation into Mandelson’s links with Epstein and whether the financier profited from the JP Morgan takeover of Sempra Commodities, which was part-owned by the taxpayer.
Court documents reveal that Epstein arranged at least two meetings between Mandelson and Staley in Davos and in New York.
Mandelson is alleged to have stayed at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse while he was serving a sentence in Florida for soliciting a minor.
After one Davos meeting in 2010, Epstein emailed Staley to ask: ‘Was Petie helpful?’ Two weeks later, the £1bn deal was announced.
Last night, both JP Morgan and Mandelson declined to comment.
Mandelson has previously expressed regret over his friendship with Epstein, saying he wished he had never met him.
Earlier this year, when asked about the relationship by the Financial Times, he told the reporter: ‘F*** off’ and accused the paper of being ‘obsessed’.
He later said he regretted ‘even more the hurt’ Epstein had caused to young women.
