Peter Mandelson last night insisted he has ‘no idea’ why he was photographed in his pants in Jeffrey Epstein’s £8m Paris ‘House of Sin’ apartment as he described the paedophile as a ‘master manipulator’.
He is facing a police probe into whether he leaked ‘market sensitive’ information to the child abusing financier by forwarding him No 10 emails containing advice to then-prime minister Gordon Brown.
One saw Lord Mandelson give Epstein advance notice of a €500billion bailout of the Eurozone. Today New Labour’s ‘Prince of Darkness’ is facing a police probe.
In his first interview since three million Epstein files were released, he also complained that the American paedophile financier who he called his friend is like ‘muck that you can’t get off your shoe… Like dog muck, the smell never goes away.’
On the now-notorious picture of him in his pants was taken inside Epstein’s palatial ‘House of Sin’ in Paris, he said he has ‘no idea what I am doing in this photograph or who the woman was. It looks as though she came in and showed me something on an iPad’.
It came as a new embarrassing picture of Mandelson was released, this time of him with a cheesy grin while getting a foot massage.
In his first interview since police began looking at claims he leaked market sensitive information to the paedophile while in Government, he said he is struggling to recall details emerging in the Epstein Files.
The disgraced peer also claims he has ‘absolutely no recollection’ or records of Jeffrey Epstein paying $75,000 into accounts linked to him.
He said: ‘I think I would remember such a large sum’.
The architect of New Labour insists the period of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein after his conviction for soliciting sex from girls as young as 14 was a blur.
‘[Epstein] told me he had been framed in his indictment in 2008 and I feel really bad about continuing my association with him afterwards’, he said.
‘That’s why I wanted to apologise unequivocally for doing so, to the women and girls who suffered’, he told The Times.
He has blamed being ‘too trusting’ of Jeffrey Epstein, describing the paedophile financier as a ‘classic sociopath’ amid newly released files linking the pair.
The walls continued to cave in around the former Labour grandee on Tuesday as a leaked photo showed him getting a foot massage from an unidentified woman.
Dressed in suit and tie, the peer can be seen sitting in a leopard-print chair and appears to be grinning as the woman removes a sock from his foot.
The picture was sent to Mandelson by Epstein in an email dating back to February 2011.
Reflecting on his association with the disgraced financier, Mandelson says Epstein helped him move from the political sphere into the world of finance.
‘Perhaps he wanted to be a mentor and I was naive in regarding him as a good-faith actor,’ he told The Times. ‘There was no reason to shun his advice, but I was too trusting.
‘He was always very free and forthright with his views and always presented them as in my best interests.’
Mandelson added: ‘He was a classic sociopath. Outwardly, completely charming and engaging. He was very clever.’
And on the series of scandals that have dogged his career he said: ‘I’ve had a lot of bad luck, no doubt some of it of my own making’.
The sudden release by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) of millions of emails associated with the Epstein case last year turned the prominent Blairite’s life upside down, forcing him out of his role as Ambassador to the US within days.
In recent days, further documents have piled more pressure on him and now Scotland Yard are involved.
Scotland Yard is reviewing revelations that the architect of New Labour passed on highly sensitive advice given to then-prime minister Gordon Brown.
The email, sent in 2009 at the height of the financial crisis, was on Monday branded a ‘betrayal’ and sparked furious calls for an investigation.
The Metropolitan Police received referrals from both Reform UK and the SNP asking detectives to investigate the peer, who on Sunday quit the Labour Party to avoid causing ‘further embarrassment’.
Another email, part of three million documents released on Friday by the US Department of Justice, saw Lord Mandelson give Epstein advance notice of a €500billion bailout of the Eurozone, potentially allowing the paedophile financier to cash in ahead of the deal being formally announced the following day.
And Mandelson, who now faces calls to quit the Lords, also tipped off his friend the night before Mr Brown resigned from No 10.
In an interview published on Monday, Lord Mandelson claimed that he was ‘too trusting’ of Epstein, who he described as ‘muck that you can’t get off your shoe… Like dog muck, the smell never goes away’.
But he made it clear he has no intention of disappearing from public life, telling The Times: ‘Hiding under a rock would be a disproportionate response to a handful of misguided historical emails, which I regret sending.’
And he said none of the Epstein files ‘indicate wrongdoing or misdemeanour on my part’ as he refused to give evidence to a US Congress inquiry.
Catherine MacLeod, who served as a special adviser to then-Chancellor Alastair Darling, said the leaking of confidential Treasury emails to Jeffrey Epstein during the financial crisis was a ‘betrayal’ in a Radio 4 interview.
Reform said it was ‘abundantly clear’ that Lord Mandelson ‘abused his position in office’ and called on the police to ‘investigate these shocking revelations’.
Meanwhile, Stephen Flynn, the SNP leader at Westminster, said in a letter to Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley that Lord Mandelson’s tenure in Government ‘must now be criminally investigated’.
The Met tonight confirmed it had received reports relating to allegations of misconduct in public office and said detectives were reviewing them to ‘determine if they meet the criminal threshold for investigation’.
Earlier in the day Gordon Brown said: ‘I have asked the Cabinet Secretary to investigate the disclosure of confidential and market sensitive information from the then Business Department during the global financial crisis.’
He also revealed that on September 10 last – the day Sir Keir Starmer said he had ‘confidence’ in Lord Mandelson as the Epstein scandal swirled once again – he wrote to the Cabinet Secretary, calling for an investigation into the peer but was told no records could be found.
New material appears to show emails were forwarded to Epstein by Lord Mandelson in which key Downing Street aides and ministers discussed a proposed £20billion of asset sales to shore up the country and revealed Labour’s tax policy plans.
This information would have been valuable to any bank or financial institution. The document was forwarded by Lord Mandelson to Epstein with the comment: ‘Interesting note that’s gone to the PM.’
Epstein replied ‘what salable [sic] assets?’ Lord Mandelson responded: ‘Land, property I guess.’ Four months later the government announced a £16billion asset sale.
Meanwhile a series of emails appear to show Epstein used Lord Mandelson to arrange private tours of No10, including for his goddaughter.
In July 2009 Epstein emailed Lord Mandelson: ‘My goddaughter will be in London on wed and thurs [sic] of next week, what can we do to make it a very special trip.’
Lord Mandelson responded by asking ‘how old?’, to which Epstein said: ’15… House of Lords, Number 10, just for ten miniutes [sic].’ Lord Mandelson responded: ‘Fine on all.’
It came after bank statements emerged which suggest Epstein made $75,000 (£55,000) worth of payments to accounts connected to Lord Mandelson between 2003 and 2004.
Separate emails between the two show that in 2009 Epstein wired Lord Mandelson’s now husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, $10,000.
Three months later, Lord Mandelson, then the business secretary, was lobbying ministers on Epstein’s behalf over a proposed tax on bankers’ bonuses.
A few months earlier, in July 2009, Epstein was released from prison having served 13 months for soliciting a minor.
Lord Mandelson was sacked as British ambassador to the US in September after emails between him and Epstein were made public in which he told the paedophile to ‘fight for early release’.
