- Veteran Labour strategist leaves public life under a cloud, with investigations ongoing and his reputation tainted
LONDON
Veteran Labour strategist Peter Mandelson, once one of the most influential figures in modern British politics, has returned to the headlines following fresh disclosures linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The revelations – which have already contributed to the resignations of senior aides to Prime Minister Keir Starmer – have reignited scrutiny of Mandelson’s past associations and drawn comparisons to some of Britain’s most damaging political scandals.
His reported ties to Epstein have fueled a political crisis described by some commentators as the most serious since the Profumo affair of the early 1960s, which ended the career of Secretary of State for War John Profumo.
Mandelson, long dubbed a political “spin doctor” and the “Prince of Darkness” for his strategic prowess and backroom influence, has now seen his decades-long career conclude with his resignation from the Labour Party and the House of Lords.
Who is Mandelson?
Peter Benjamin Mandelson was born in London on Oct. 21, 1953, into a politically connected and socially prominent family.
His father, George Norman Mandelson, served as advertising manager of The Jewish Chronicle and had been an officer in the Royal Dragoons during World War II.
His mother, Mary Joyce, was the daughter of Herbert Morrison, a senior Labour figure who served as leader of the London County Council and later as a Cabinet minister in Clement Attlee’s post-war government.
Mandelson’s grandfather, Norman Mandelson, of Polish Jewish heritage, founded the Harrow United Synagogues, embedding the family within London’s Jewish communal life.
As a student, Mandelson displayed early political activism. He joined the Young Communist League in protest against Britain’s support for the US war effort in Vietnam. He later studied philosophy, politics and economics at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, where he became a member of the Labour Party.
After graduating, he joined the Trades Union Congress (TUC), marking the start of a career closely intertwined with organized labor and party politics.
Rise within Labour and the New Labour project
Mandelson’s political ascent began at the local level. He was elected to Lambeth Borough Council in South London in a 1979 by-election but resigned three years later, disillusioned with the borough’s left-wing leadership.
From 1982 to 1985, he worked as a television producer, gaining experience in media presentation that would later shape Labour’s communications strategy.
His national political career accelerated in 1985 when Labour leader Neil Kinnock appointed him director of communications, and in 1992, he was elected MP for Hartlepool, a seat in northeastern England.
Mandelson became a central figure in the New Labour project, working closely with Tony Blair to reposition the party toward the political center and broaden its electoral appeal.
Following Labour’s landslide victory in 1997, he entered government as a minister and soon emerged as one of Blair’s most trusted strategists.
Cabinet office and repeated resignations
Mandelson’s ministerial career was marked by both rapid advancement and abrupt setbacks.
In 1998, he was promoted to the Cabinet as trade and industry secretary. However, he resigned later that year after it emerged he had borrowed money from a fellow minister to purchase a house without formally declaring the loan.
Blair brought him back into government in 1999 as Northern Ireland secretary, arguing he had paid a sufficient political price. Yet Mandelson resigned again in January 2001 following allegations that he intervened improperly in the granting of British passports to members of the UK’s richest Asian family, the Hinduja family.
Despite these controversies, he remained a close Blair ally. In 2004, he was appointed the UK’s European commissioner for trade, a powerful role in which he oversaw international trade negotiations.
He left the European Commission in 2008 when Prime Minister Gordon Brown appointed him business secretary. Because he had resigned from the House of Commons in 2004, Mandelson was made a life peer and entered the House of Lords to rejoin government.
He remained in office until Labour lost power in 2010. That year he published The Third Man, a memoir that attracted considerable attention for its account of internal Labour politics and the New Labour era.
In December 2024, Starmer nominated Mandelson as his ambassador to the US, and he assumed office in February 2025, just a month after Donald Trump took the White House from Joe Biden.
Mandelson was sacked in September 2025 after emails revealed the extent of his association with and support for Epstein.
Epstein revelations and renewed controversy
Disclosures in the Epstein files show that Jeffrey Epstein made payments totaling about £55,000 ($74,000) between 2003 and 2004 to Mandelson or his partner, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, and covered Silva’s educational expenses.
Emails in the files also suggest Mandelson shared sensitive UK government information with Epstein during the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
The BBC further reported that Mandelson also offered to help Epstein obtain a Russian visa intended for travel to Moscow to meet young women.
Earlier reports had raised questions about Mandelson’s associations with wealthy business figures. In 2005, The Times reported he spent New Year’s Eve aboard a yacht owned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen at a time when the company faced an EU investigation. The following year, The Daily Mail reported he accepted a complimentary yacht cruise from Italian businessman Diego Della Valle.
Since the revelations in the latest Epstein files tranche, Starmer has apologized for picking Mandelson as ambassador to the US, saying he was “sorry” for believing his assurances about his relationship with Epstein.
The fallout has widened, with Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney resigning, followed by communications director Tim Allan.
The Metropolitan Police have searched two properties linked to Mandelson and launched a criminal investigation following allegations that government emails were leaked to Epstein.
The British government said it referred material to police after reviewing Mandelson’s correspondence.
As police inquiries continue and the government struggles to contain the damage, the scandal has reopened a broader debate about elite power, political accountability and the long shadow cast by Epstein’s global network.
For Mandelson – a strategist who helped reshape modern Labour and navigate decades of political turbulence – the final chapter of his career is now inseparable from one of the most explosive scandals to engulf British politics in a generation.
Once a central figure at the heart of British political power, Mandelson now leaves public life under a cloud, with investigations ongoing and his legacy sharply contested.