{"id":403334,"date":"2026-02-02T04:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T04:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/403334\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T04:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T04:01:08","slug":"mandelson-quits-labour-after-new-claims-about-epstein-ties-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/403334\/","title":{"rendered":"Mandelson quits Labour after new claims about Epstein ties \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI have been further linked this weekend to the understandable furore surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and I feel regretful and sorry about this,\u201d Mandelson said in a letter to Labour\u2019s General Secretary Hollie Ridley, according to a statement released to the media Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAllegations which I believe to be false that he made financial payments to me 20 years ago, and of which I have no record or recollection, need investigating by me,\u201d Mandelson added. \u201cWhile doing this I do not wish to cause further embarrassment to the Labour Party and I am therefore stepping down from membership of the party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mandelson was sacked as Britain\u2019s ambassador to Washington in September<\/a> after emails emerged showing he sent supportive messages to Epstein while the financier was facing charges for soliciting a minor in 2008. Earlier this month, Mandelson said he was wrong to have continued his association with Epstein and apologized \u201cunequivocally\u201d to Epstein\u2019s victims.<\/p>\n

Mandelson repeated that apology in the statement on Sunday, adding: \u201cI have dedicated my life to the values and success of the Labour Party and in taking my decision I believe I am acting in its\u00a0 best interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Labour Party spokesperson said: \u201cThe Labour Party takes all complaints seriously and they are investigated in line with our rules and procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI have been further linked this weekend to the understandable furore surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and I feel regretful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403335,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,424,56,54,158,55],"class_list":["post-403334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-peter-mandelson","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}