Gordon Brown has said he deeply regrets bringing Peter Mandelson into his government, and that revelations about Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s influence on UK politics had caused him revulsion.<\/p>\n
Writing in the Guardian<\/a>, Brown said the news that Mandelson was passing information to Epstein while he was business secretary was \u201ca betrayal of everything we stand for as a country\u201d.<\/p>\n Brown said he was at fault for making Mandelson a peer and bringing him back into government in 2008, after Mandelson had quit as an MP to become EU trade commissioner.<\/p>\n \u201cI have to take personal responsibility for appointing Mandelson to his ministerial role in 2008. I greatly regret this appointment,\u201d he wrote, saying that at the time he was told that Mandelson\u2019s record in Brussels had been \u201cunblemished\u201d and he did not know about any Epstein links.<\/p>\n \u201cI did so in spite of him being anything but a friend to me, because I thought that his unquestioned knowledge of Europe and beyond could help us as we dealt with the global financial crisis,\u201d Brown wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cI now know that I was wrong. He seems to have used market-sensitive inside information to betray the principles in which he said he believed, and he betrayed the people who believed in them \u2013 and him.\u201d<\/p>\n Mandelson was sacked as Keir Starmer\u2019s ambassador to the US in September after new details emerged of his friendship with Epstein, ties that lasted beyond the late child sex offender\u2019s jailing in 2008.<\/p>\n But the release this week of masses of new documents about Epstein and his contacts showed the closeness of their ties. They also suggested Mandelson had received money from Epstein, and had leaked market-sensitive information to the financier, which is now the subject of a criminal investigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Labour MPs have expressed alarm that Starmer\u2019s decision to publish thousands of documents about Mandelson<\/a> could lead to months of damaging headlines.<\/p>\n In a statement on Friday afternoon, the Met said officers were searching two homes<\/a> connected to Mandelson, in north London and Wiltshire. Mandelson has been living in a rented property in Wiltshire since returning to the UK.<\/p>\n \u201cThe searches are related to an ongoing investigation into misconduct in public office offences involving a 72-year-old man. He has not been arrested and inquiries are ongoing,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n On Friday evening Starmer, in a letter to Lord Beamish, the chair of parliament\u2019s intelligence and security committee, said that he had asked the cabinet secretary \u201cto work with you and your committee to agree the detail of how material that may be prejudicial to the UK\u2019s national security and international relations is shared and reviewed\u201d.<\/p>\n Starmer added: \u201cIt is important that documents are made available to parliament as soon as possible, noting that there is likely to be a very significant volume of material that will need to be reviewed to establish whether it is in scope.\u201d<\/p>\n This week\u2019s revelations caused fury<\/a> among many Labour MPs, especially after Starmer disclosed in the Commons on Wednesday that he had agreed to the ambassadorial appointment while knowing about Mandleson\u2019s post-prison ties to Epstein.<\/p>\n In response to a Conservative Commons motion, the prime minister has agreed to the publication of all documents, emails and messages connected to the appointment, an extremely broad remit that is worrying some Labour<\/a> MPs.<\/p>\n Government officials said on Friday that the total number of documents was thought to be in the \u201chigh tens of thousands\u201d. One said: \u201cIt\u2019s a very big task. This is a public inquiry-level amount of information.\u201d<\/p>\n Starmer had hoped to publish a mass of documents about the case on Wednesday. However, the scale of the task, in which officials will have to check every document for sensitive information, with any relevant ones passed to parliament\u2019s intelligence and security committee for checking, could result in embarrassing revelations dribbling out over weeks or months.<\/p>\n One MP said that while this was unwelcome, there was \u201cno way to avoid it, as it would look like a cover-up\u201d. Another said it was important to make sure the ISC had the necessary resources to cope with the expected workload.<\/p>\n Although No 10 hoped MPs\u2019 anger would dissipate over the weekend, there were renewed calls on Friday for the removal of Starmer\u2019s chief of staff<\/a>, Morgan McSweeney, who is close to Mandelson and is believed to have pushed for the appointment.<\/p>\n The Labour MP for Stroud, Simon Opher, told the BBC: \u201cKeir Starmer needs to change his advisers in No 10. I think he\u2019s been badly advised, and he\u2019s been really let down, particularly on this decision.<\/p>\n