The SNP has renewed its demand for Labour leader Keir Starmer to remove Peter Mandelson from the House of Lords after new documents revealed the peer maintained contact with Jeffrey Epstein as late as 2016.
Emails released by the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee show that Epstein and Lord Mandelson exchanged messages years after the financier’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor.
In one message from November 2015, Epstein wrote: “63 years old. You made it.” Mandelson replied less than two hours later: “Just. I have decided to extend my life by spending more of it in the US.”
The revelations follow earlier reports that led to Mandelson’s removal from his role as UK Ambassador to the United States, after correspondence emerged showing he had referred to Epstein as his “best pal” and questioned his conviction.
Despite mounting pressure, Mandelson remains a Labour peer and continues to sit in the Lords, prompting criticism that Starmer is unwilling to act.
SNP depute Westminster leader Pete Wishart MP said the situation raises serious questions about Labour’s moral compass.
“With every passing week, the extent and depth of Peter Mandelson’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein is revealed and yet with every passing week Peter Mandelson is being kept in the House of Lords by Keir Starmer and the Labour Party,” he said.
“People are rightly asking why Keir Starmer is so determined to keep this disgraced figure in the House of Lords.
“The King has now acted to remove titles and positions from his own brother, what does it say about Keir Starmer that he has failed to do the same with Peter Mandelson?”
Mr Wishart added that the principle of accountability must apply equally to politicians and the royal family.
“Andrew Mountbatten Windsor has been rightly stripped of his titles and his position, it is right that the very same principle is immediately enforced on Peter Mandelson,” he said.
“It is wrong on every moral level that Peter Mandelson is being kept in a position by Keir Starmer where he is able to make laws for life in the House of Lords.”
The SNP has already tabled a motion to force the Labour government to act, arguing that Mandelson’s position is incompatible with public trust in political institutions.
Mr Wishart said questions about Labour’s reluctance to act would persist until Mandelson is removed.
“People are naturally questioning what Keir Starmer has to fear by sacking Peter Mandelson from the Lords,” he said.
“What hold does Mandelson have over him, and what is he afraid will happen if he does the right thing?
“Until Keir Starmer follows the example of the King and acts to remove Peter Mandelson from the House of Lords and the public payroll, this scandal is nowhere near its end.”
