In fact, the sordid relationship between Epstein and Mandelson had already been well-established by a bombshell document that many do not even know about — but which everyone should read, if you have the stomach.
The document was a summary of the emails exchanged between Staley and Epstein. This included emails in which Mandelson was discussed. It also included emails between Epstein and Mandelson that Epstein forwarded to Staley. Investigators concluded that “Jeffrey Epstein appears to maintain a particularly close relationship with Prince Andrew the Duke of York and Lord Peter Mandelson.” The emails dated from between 2009 and 2011.
Lord Mandelson (left) and paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein (right), in an image released in an earlier tranche of Epstein files
PA Media
The emails are damning. They showed, for example, that Mandelson had stayed at Epstein’s flat while Epstein was in prison for soliciting a 14-year-old girl for prostitution. In one exchange, Mandelson offered to use his (alleged) access to the Minister and President of Congo-Brazzaville to unlock an oil concession for the benefit of a consortium advised by JP Morgan. Mandelson is referred to as “Petie” repeatedly, as Epstein shares news of Mandelson’s travel schedule. Business deals and introductions are common currency, alongside travel plans and market-sensitive discussions.
Hypnotic, damning and forensic
This document formed the basis of a Financial Times exclusive in June 2023, which is now cited frequently as evidence that everyone should have known about the Epstein-Mandelson relationship. Yet the FT piece, while excellent, was only a summary and overview.
There is something different about reading this document, which is sickeningly hypnotic. Across two and a half dense pages, the Project Jeep report provides a chronological summary of emails in which Mandelson and Epstein are discussed. It is damning and forensic in detail.
This document is not some mystery. It can be downloaded, for free, from the Court Listener project. Simply search for “Government of the United States Virgin Islands v. JPMorgan Chase Bank”, and look for “Exhibit 4” filed on the June 20, 2023. The Project Jeep document is a reminder of how Epstein and Mandelson’s relationship was forged in the context of Epstein’s multi-decade reign of terror.
If this is Streeting’s power move, it is a strange one indeed. The texts show Mandelson and Streeting talking in familiar terms. They frequently ended communications with an affectionate “x”. Streeting has claimed that his primary worry is that he might upset his Cabinet colleagues because the texts reveal him criticising (a deeply unpopular) government. But what the public sees is very different: Streeting, unwilling to say anything brave in public, was instead sharing private complaints with one of the best friends of one of the world’s most notorious paedophiles.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting disclosed copies of WhatsApp conversations between himself and Mandelson
PA Wire
Streeting’s strange gambit is nevertheless indicative of a Cabinet in crisis. Most reports suggest that Mandelson’s appointment was pushed by Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief of staff, who was finally forced out this week. Much has been made of McSweeney’s long and abiding historical relationship with Mandelson, and how much of McSweeney’s brutal political methodology borrowed heavily from Mandelson’s “dark arts” playbook.
The problem for this government is that it has been powerfully shaped by the Mandelson-McSweeney milieu. Both have used their influence and power to remake the party in their image. Mandelson is said to have even advised on the recent September Cabinet reshuffle that promoted a range of McSweeney allies (like Shabana Mahmood and Steve Reed) and displaced the remnants of the soft-Left. There is no one of any major substance in Starmer’s Cabinet that can believably distance themselves from McSweeney or Mandelson.
It is yet another, perhaps final, indictment of the McSweeney-Starmer regime. Because now the public faces a discomfiting fact: we are led by a collapsing political project, pulling all and sundry into its decaying orbit. Can any light escape from this black hole of incompetence and indecency? Or will the Labour Party, and the public, need to find a whole new political star to orbit?
Paul Holden is the author of The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney and the Crisis of British Democracy (OR Books, £19.99)