Then-U.K. Ambassador to the U.S., Lord Peter Mandelson arrives at the Cabinet Office in central London, in a June 18, 2025, file photo. Jonathan Brady/PA Images/Getty

U.K. police have launched an investigation into former British Ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson after the U.S. Department of Justice released emails last week that indicate he may have shared confidential U.K. government documents with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The documents relate to years during which Mandelson served as a senior official in the British government nearly two decades ago.

"Following the further release of millions of court documents in relation to Jeffrey Epstein by the United States Department of Justice, the Met received a number of reports into alleged misconduct in public office including a referral from the U.K. Government," Metropolitan Police Commander Ella Marriott said in a statement Tuesday. "I can confirm that the Metropolitan Police has now launched an investigation into a 72-year-old man, a former Government Minister, for misconduct in public office offenses."

Emails released last Friday appear to show that while Mandelson was in government as the U.K. Business Secretary in 2009 and 2010, he shared confidential, market-sensitive information with Epstein.

It was a period when the U.K., U.S. and European governments were still battling to contain the global financial crisis, and in one 2009 email released Friday, Mandelson confirmed rumors of a €500 billion eurozone bailout, telling Epstein the announcement would come that night.

In another 2010 exchange, Mandelson sent an internal government communication to Epstein, with the message: "Interesting note that's gone to the PM."

The memo in question appeared to be a note from an advisor to then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown, detailing the U.K.'s struggling economy with a policy recommendation to sell off government-held assets in order to raise revenue.

Other documents released by the Justice Department on Friday appear to show that Epstein made $75,000 in payments to Mandelson in three separate $25,000 transactions in 2003 and 2004. Mandelson was a private citizen at that time.

Documents released Friday also suggest that, in 2009, Epstein sent almost $12,000 to Reinaldo Avila da Silva, Mandelson's husband, to pay for an osteopathy course.

Investigators are examining whether Mandelson abused his position, with critics raising questions about potential national security breaches.

It has put more pressure on Prime Minister Keir Starmer over his decision to appoint Mandelson last year as Britain's top diplomat in the U.S.

Starmer's office said Tuesday that it had conducted its own review of the documents released on Friday in Washington. In a statement, it said it had concluded that "safeguards were compromised" in relation to sensitive information being shared improperly, and, "in light of this information the Cabinet Office has referred this material to the police."

Starmer has said Mandelson's links to Epstein were vetted as part of his appointment to the U.S. ambassadorship, but that Mandelson had lied about the extent of his relationship with the American financier.

"Mandelson betrayed our country, our parliament, and my party," Starmer said in parliament on Wednesday.

CBS News has sought comment from Mandelson on the allegations. In an interview with the BBC last month, he denied any knowledge of or complicity in Epstein's sexual crimes.

In a letter in which Mandelson formally resigned from the Labour Party earlier this week, he also denied receiving payments from Epstein, saying, "allegations 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."

In an interview published by the Times of London this week, Mandelson said any payments made to his partner did not influence his position as a government minister.

"The idea that giving Reinaldo an osteopath bursary is going to sway mine or anyone else's views about banking policy is risible," he said.

During his decades-long career as a Labour Party politician, he earned the nickname "the Prince of Darkness," for the record he built up as a ruthless, media-savvy problem solver.

Many political pundits believe it was that reputation as a well-connected political maneuverer that landed him the coveted ambassadorship not long after Mr. Trump began his second term.

Starmer fired him from that position in September, after Epstein-related documents released by the U.S. House of Representatives showed Mandelson had maintained a close relationship with Epstein years after the disgraced financier's 2008 conviction on charges of solicitation of prostitution and procuring a child for prostitution.

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