The apparent emails between Lord Mandelson and Epstein were part of a huge release of documents by the DoJ on Friday.

Emails released in the files from 2008 appear to show Lord Mandelson – who was then business secretary – discussing the government’s plans for a one-off tax on bankers’ bonuses with Epstein.

Other emails published in the tranche of documents from the DoJ appear to suggest:

Lord Mandelson gave advance notice to Epstein of a €500bn bailout from the EU to save the Euro

Epstein made $75,000 in payments to Lord Mandelson in three separate $25,000 transactions in 2003 and 2004. Lord Mandleson has said he has no record or recollection of the payments

Epstein sent £10,000 to Lord Mandelson’s partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva in 2009.

Lord Mandelson said he was resigning his Labour membership in a statement released on Sunday.

He also said he believed allegations that Epstein had made financial payments to him 20 years ago were false.

Lord Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein was known when he was appointed as US ambassador in 2024, but he was sacked last year when embarrassing details about their association were released.

No 10 is now facing questions about its vetting process, and how much it knew about the friendship when it decided to make the appointment.

The government will confirm on Wednesday that it is willing to publish information relating to its decision to appoint Lord Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the US.

The Conservatives are planning to use a parliamentary technique known as a humble address to attempt to compel ministers to release the information.

Humble addresses, if agreed, are understood to be binding on the House.

The Tories have devoted considerable time to ensure the wording makes it very difficult for Labour MPs to vote against it.

But the government has suggested an amendment to it, which would promise to release the information “except papers prejudicial to UK national security or international relations”.

It isn’t expected any information would be released immediately.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the prime minister had “a lot of questions to answer” about the appointment of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador, adding Sir Keir “should not try and distract anyone by talking about removing peerages or investigations”.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has called for a public inquiry into how Epstein had been able to “gain access to the heart of the British political establishment”.