It comes after the government agreed to MPs’ demands last month to release thousands of documents relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment in 2024 after questions over how the peer was vetted

Keir Starmer has published the first wave of files relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as the UK’s ambassador to Washington.

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It comes after the government agreed to MPs’ demands last month to release thousands of documents relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment in 2024 after questions over how the peer was vetted and what was known about his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

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The first tranche of documents were released shortly after Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday and include a series of shocking details about the vetting process. Here are the key bombshells from the first document.

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Peter Mandelson handed severance payment of around £75,000

Peter Mandelson trousered a £75,000 severance payment when he was sacked as Britain’s ambassador to Washington last year – but asked for more than half a million pounds.

In September, Keir Starmer dramatically sacked him from the role after it emerged he coached Jeffrey Epstein through “years of torture” over underage sex charges. The PM has since said that Lord Mandelson “repeatedly lied” to him over the extent of his relationship with Epstein.

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The files confirm the Foreign Office paid him £75,000 in total: £40,330 as he was not given three months’ notice, plus a £34,670 termination payment. But he requested a pay out of more than £500,000, the full salary he’d have earned for a four-year tenure. The document states: “Negotiations began with a request by the individual to pay out the remainder of the 4- year salary costs of the fixed term appointment. This would have amounted to £547,201.”

The disgraced peer has already faced demands to give the payment to charity. “The disgraced ambassador must donate any severance payment he received in full to charity,” the Lib Dems said.

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Mandelson told Foreign Office he felt awful about association with Epstein ‘twenty years ago’—despite a 2016 email

Lord Mandelson told Foreign Office colleagues in his farewell email on September 11, 2025, that he continued to “feel utterly awful about my association with Epstein twenty years ago”. This was despite apparently being in contact with the billionaire paedophile as late as 2016 according to emails released last year.

In the email to Foreign Office staff, Lord Mandelson told colleagues as he quit his job as British ambassador to Washington: “The circumstances surrounding the announcement today are ones which I deeply regret. I continue to feel utterly awful about my association with Epstein twenty years ago and the plight of his victims. I have no alternative to accepting the Prime Minister’s decision and will leave a position in which I have been so incredibly honoured to serve.”

UK’s national security adviser found Mandelson appointment ‘weirdly rushed’

A record of a call with officials and the UK’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, shows he expressed concerns about the appointment of Lord Mandelson. The note said: “Jonathan Powell [JP] found the appointment process unusual of Lord Mandelson [LM] weirdly rushed…”

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It added: “JP doesn’t recall any specific meetings on this that he was involved in, though there were a few conversations.” Crucially, it adds Mr Powell “raised concerns about the individual and reputation” to the PM’s former chief-of-staff. A record of a call with the former director of communications in Downing Street, Matthew Doyle, also claims Mr Powell was “particularly cautious about the appointment”.

Government warned of ‘reputational risks’ from Epstein links

A due diligence review from the propriety and ethics team has an extensive section on the “reputational risks” of appointing Lord Mandelson as ambassador to the US given his links with Epstein.It says: “A 2019 report commissioned by JPMorgan found that Epstein appeared to ‘maintain a particularly close relationship with Prince Andrew the Duke of York and Lord Peter Mandelson, a senior member of the British government’. The report cited Epstein’s personal records which showed contact beginning in 2002 and continuing throughout the 2000s.“After Epstein was first convicted of procuring an underage girl in 2008, their relationship continued across 2009-2011, beginning when Lord Mandelson was Business Minister and continuing after the end of the Labour government. Mandelson reportedly stayed in Epstein’s House while he was in jail in June 2009. In 2014 Mandelson also agreed to be a “founding citizen” of an ocean conservation group founded by Ghislaine Maxwell, and funded by Epstein.”It also cites a Telegraph article from January 2024 that explores the “particularly close friendship” between the pair. The review also notes that the Cabinet Office holds official records “that are likely to be released by the National Archives early next year, which relate to a Tony Blair meeting with Epstein that was facilitated by Mandelson”.

‘Reputational risks’ not limited to Epstein

The reputational risks of appointing Lord Mandelson’s were significant – and did not only relate to his links to Jeffrey Epstein. The due diligence review into his appointment – which is included in the files – lists several other risks, including comments about Nigel Farage and his controversial political past.

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The document notes that Lord Mandelson suggested “using Nigel Farage to better UK connections with the Trump administration” could be damaging. The files quote Mandelson saying about the Reform UK leader: “You can’t ignore him, he’s an elected member of parliament. He’s a public figure. He’s a bridgehead, both to President Trump and to Elon Musk and others . . . National interest is served in all sorts of weird and wonderful ways.”

His controversial ministerial past – which included two resignations – was also cited as a risk. It detailed how he quit as Northern Ireland Secretary in 2001 “after the ‘passports-for-cash’ scandal, where he lobbied the Home Office to grant citizenship for Srichand Hinduja, who was also sponsoring the Millennium Dome”. It also notes that he resigned as Trade and Industry Secretary in 1998 due to not declaring a £373,000 loan from Geoffrey Robinson, a Cabinet colleague, which was used to fund a property purchase.

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The review also said Lord Mandelson being “seen as an advocate for closer UK-China relations” could be a reputational risk. It also says risks could occur relating to clients’ of Global Counsel, a consultancy firm founded by Lord Mandelson, and their dealings with the UK or USA government.

Lord Mandelson told Foreign Office he wanted ‘maximum dignity’ leaving US

Several days after being sacked as Ambassador to Washington, Lord Mandelson asked how the Foreign Office would help reduce media intrusion.

It said: “My chief concern is leaving the US and arriving in the UK with the maximum dignity and minimum media intrusion which I think is to the advantage of all concerned, not least because I remain a crown/civil servant an expect to be treated as such. How is the FCDO assisting in this?”

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Foreign Office feared Mandelson would ‘go public’ with damaging claims without swift compensation

Foreign Office bosses feared Lord Mandelson would “go public” with damaging claims against the Government if did not swiftly agree to compensation. The claims are contained in an email written by a senior civil servant discussing a call with the peer over his sacking.

In it Mark Power, the Interim Chief People Officer, wrote: “His argument heavily focusses on the reasonableness of the PM’s decision. There is some carefully placed language around the public implications of not reaching a settlement, and the nature of an employment tribunal case.”

Part of the email has then been redacted. Mr Powell ended it by writing: “There is a potential, that absent a positive indication, Peter goes public on some of his claims so there is some urgency.”

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PM raised ‘serious discomfort’ of Labour MPs when sacking Mandelson

Keir Starmer acknowledged the “serious discomfort” among Labour MPs over Peter Mandelson’s ties to Epstein during a key meeting where it was decided the peer would be sacked as Ambassador to Washington. It was attended by the Deputy PM David Lammy, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, Chief Whip Jonathan Reynolds, and officials from both the Foreign Office and No10.

One email released in the documents contains a note of the PM’s meeting on Lord Mandelson’s position on September 11 – the day he was eventually dismissed from the post.

The note said: “He [the PM] referenced the his concern at the judgements and views expressed in the cache of emails released by Bloomberg, that the answers Mandelson provided to FCDO PUS [Permanent Under-Secretary] Olly Robbins regarding the emails did not give him confidence that there were not further revelations to come and the serious discomfort in the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party].”

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It added: “The emails revealed a depth and extent of a relationship with Epstein which he had not been aware of previously when he made the decision to appoint Mandelson. On this basis, he proposed to ask Mandelson to resign from his post as HMA Washington.”