Peter Mandelson was once launched on bail this week after being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public place of business. Coming simply days after the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the pictures of the previous US ambassador being led away by way of police will most probably keep on with audience for a while.
The political ramifications of Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the United States proceed to replicate badly on Keir Starmer’s political judgment. Whilst it is a tale that may most probably run and run, it’s value taking inventory of the way we were given right here.
December 19 2024: Mandelson appointed US ambassador
When Starmer selected Mandelson as ambassador, the overall response was once that it was once a possibility. The BBC pointed to his friendship with the past due financier and intercourse culprit Jeffrey Epstein, and described him as “not a baggage-free choice”. This luggage, if being pals with a recognized paedophile was once no longer sufficient, incorporated having to renounce from govt two times right through the New Labour years.
Matthew Lynn, within the Telegraph, went additional, arguing that he would make a “terrible” ambassador as a result of he was once each “damaged goods” and “put politely … accident prone”. For steadiness, Tom Harris (additionally within the Telegraph) described Mandelson as a “political genius” and “the right man to deal with Trump”.
This was once, in the long run, the gamble taken by way of Starmer and his workforce. They appointed a recognized affiliate of Epstein with a doubtful moral monitor document, however who was once – as a Downing Side road supply advised the BBC in February 2025 – “supremely political” and a “brilliant operator”.
Might 8 2025: Entrance and centre of UK-US business deal
“Cometh the hour, cometh the Mandelson”, learn the Father or mother headline the day after the United Kingdom and the United States agreed to a business deal. A deal which, no longer for not anything, might neatly were unpicked by way of Trump’s reaction to the Ultimate Courtroom ruling his price lists unconstitutional. The Instances stated that Mandelson had “proven the doubters wrong”, and referred to as him the “Trump whisperer”.
This was once the instant, as I in the past defined within the Dialog, of superb triumph. And it was once broadly observed, around the political spectrum, as vindication of the chance Starmer took.
The ‘Trump whisperer’?
Bonnie Money/Pool
September 8 2025: Birthday messages to Epstein launched, Mandelson fired
The wheels got here off with the discharge, by way of a US congressional panel, of a 238-page scrapbook given to Epstein for his fiftieth birthday. In it, Mandelson’s multi-page message to Epstein described him as his “best pal”. Mandelson stated that he regretted “very, very deeply indeed, carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done”.
January 30 2026: Additional Epstein information launched
February 4 2026: MPs approve the discharge of paperwork
A Space of Commons debate was once held surrounding the discharge of information associated with the appointment of Mandelson as US ambassador. Starmer to start with urged that information which might injury diplomatic members of the family or nationwide safety could be exempt from unencumber. Then again, after an intervention from Angela Rayner, the federal government agreed to incorporate a cross-party parliamentary committee within the procedure. The BBC has due to this fact reported that those paperwork may quantity over 100,000.
February 23 2026: Mandelson arrested
Mandelson was once arrested Monday evening on suspicion of misconduct in public place of business, and launched on bail Tuesday morning. Mandelson has claimed that his arrest was once in accordance with the “complete fiction” that he was once a flight possibility and making plans to escape to the British Virgin Islands (that have an extradition settlement with the United Kingdom). It has now emerged that Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle handed data to the police forward of the arrest.
Journalists out of doors of Mandelson’s London house.
Andy Rain/EPA-EFE
What occurs now?
Misconduct in public place of business is notoriously tricky to prosecute and has a tendency to depend on a 3 degree check: that the accused will have to were performing in an legit capability on the time of the alleged offence, that they wilfully misconducted themselves and that that habits falls “so far below acceptable standards that it amounts to an abuse of the public’s trust”.
Criminal professionals counsel that the latter is a shockingly top bar. On this example it would neatly be the case that merely leaking data does no longer meet that bar, and that the police will wish to display some roughly subject matter acquire or advisable change. Both method, Mandelson will in the long run be required to go back to a police station when he’s going to both be charged, have his bail prolonged or face no additional motion.
Additional questions, naturally, can be requested of Starmer’s judgement. A Cupboard Place of job due diligence file into Mandelson’s appointment is reportedly anticipated as early as subsequent week. The file is claimed to have warned of the “reputational risk” of creating him ambassador.
If so, it might reignite conversations about Starmer’s management and a probably bruising evening within the Gorton and Denton byelection on Thursday gained’t lend a hand. Despite the fact that Starmer’s alternative in maximum circles is now being mentioned as an issue of when, no longer if.
In any case, Starmer is finding out the onerous method – simply as Boris Johnson did prior to him – that requirements topic in British politics. It’s not sufficient, as Starmer did when he up to date the ministerial code, to only communicate a large sport. One can not say that “restoring trust in politics is the great test of our era” after which do little or no to in reality deal with the basis explanation for that agree with.
