Peter Mandelson committed a “betrayal of his country” by allegedly leaking government secrets to Jeffrey Epstein and putting Britain “at risk”, former prime minister Gordon Brown has said.
Lord Mandelson, his ex-business secretary, has been accused of sharing market-sensitive information with the US sex offender after the 2008 global financial crisis.
Mr Brown said: “All of the information he passed on… the papers by other advisers were commercially sensitive; this was financially secret information.
“It meant that Britain was at risk because of that, the currency was at risk, some of the trading that would happen would be speculative as a result of that.
“There’s no doubt that huge commercial damage could have been done and perhaps was done.”
Lord Mandelson has been approached for comment. He has in the past denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. He has said he regrets maintaining a relationship with him and apologised to the sex offender’s victims.
It comes as police investigating claims of misconduct in a public office by Lord Mandelson have concluded their searches of two of his properties – in Camden, north London, and in Wiltshire.
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The Metropolitan Police said the criminal investigation is “complex” and will require a “significant amount of further evidence gathering and analysis”.
Mr Brown spoke after emails released as part of the Epstein files revealed the correspondence between Lord Mandelson and the paedophile financier.
In the messages, the former Labour peer appears to brief Epstein on internal discussions at the heart of UK government, including giving him advance notice of a €500bn EU bank bailout in 2010.
He also told him he was “trying hard” to change government policy on bankers’ bonuses.
The then chancellor Alistair Darling announced a 50% “super tax” on bonuses in December 2009, in a bid to prevent pay being inflated by taxpayer-funded bailouts.
The documents further suggest that Epstein sent money to Lord Mandelson and his partner, Reinaldo Avila da Silva.
Lord Mandelson twice resigned from government amid controversy under Tony Blair, before Mr Brown brought him back into the cabinet.
“I made mistakes, I regret it, it shouldn’t have happened,” Mr Brown said.
He said he and his colleagues had been betrayed by Lord Mandelson.
But, he added, “the biggest betrayal was of the women and girls that were trafficked, that were exploited, that were treated as less than human”.
Asked how he felt about his former colleague’s behaviour, he said: “shocked, sad, angry, betrayed, let down”.
He said Sir Keir Starmer had likewise made a mistake by appointing Lord Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the US last year.
“Keir Starmer was misled and he was betrayed,” Mr Brown said.
“He has clearly said it was the wrong decision, and it was the wrong decision. Just as I made a mistake, he made a mistake.”
But the ex-prime minister also hailed the current one as a man of “integrity”.
And he blamed a “systemic failure” in vetting for Lord Mandelson’s appointment.
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“Mandelson of course did appear… to have an unblemished record as the trade commissioner for four years,” he said.
“Nobody had ever heard of Epstein in the government, and nobody knew of any friendship between Epstein and Mandelson at that time.”
