Taz Ali (now); Tom Ambrose and Vicky Graham (earlier)

March 11, 2026

Mandelson sought £500k severance pay after losing ambassador role but was given £75k – UK politics live | Politics

Mandelson asked for more than £500,000 severance pay, according to documents

Peter Mandelson asked for more than £500,000 severance pay but got £75,000, according to the newly released documents.

The files released by the government states that negotiations “began with a request by the individual [Mandelson] to pay out the remainder of the 4-year salary costs of the fixed term appointment. This would have amounted to £547,201.”

He received £75,000, made up of £40,330 pay in lieu of notice to cover the three months notice period in his contract and £34,670 special severance payment.

Key events

Back to the documents, a No 10 private office record of a meeting on 11 September details what led to Starmer’s decision to sack Mandelson.

It states that emails published by news outlet Bloomberg “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”.

It later says: “The prime minister was clear about his strong concern for Epstein’s victims.”

Starmer ‘knew all he needed to know’ before making ‘bad choice’ in appointing Mandelson, Tories say

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart claimed the prime minister “knew all he needed to know” when he appointment Mandelson as ambassador to the US, describing it as a “bad choice”.

Delivering the response to Jones’s statement on behalf of the Conservatives in the Commons, Burghart said:

It’s very clear that those (Epstein’s) victims were not in the prime minister’s mind when he appointed Peter Mandelson. The prime minister has already admitted that he knew Mandelson had maintained his friendship with Epstein even after the latter’s conviction for his terrible crimes.

That was a bad choice, and it’s a choice that we can now read about in black and white on page 11, where the prime minister was told, after Epstein was first convicted of procuring an underage girl in 2008, their relationship continued across 2009 to 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 2009.

Now, the prime minister claims that he was lied to. He wasn’t lied to by this due diligence document.

And it may be that Mandelson denied these claims, and if so, maybe the prime minister was lied to, but he was lied to by an inveterate liar who had been fired twice before, and we’re supposed to believe that the prime minister, who was once the chief prosecutor in this country, couldn’t see through this nonsense. It beggars belief.

The prime minister knew all he needed to know. It was on him. It’s on him now. He let his party down. He let his country down. I very much doubt that either will trust him again.

Mandelson ‘should never have been appointed’, says Jones

In further comments to the Commons about Mandelson being made ambassador to the US, Jones said he should “never have been appointed”.

He told MPs:

The victims of Epstein have lived with trauma that most of us can barely comprehend. They’ve had to relive it again and again, and they have had to see accountability delayed and too often denied.

We must all learn this hard lesson and a culture which dismisses women’s experiences far, far too often and too easily, Peter Manderson should never have been appointed.

Jones: Mandelson’s request for £500,000 severance pay ‘inappropriate and unacceptable’

Back in the Commons, Jones addressed the severance pay requested by Mandelson – more than £500,000 – saying it was “inappropriate and unacceptable”.

He said:

Peter Mandelson initially requested a sum that was substantially larger than the final payment, not just two or even three times, but more than six times the final amount.

Despite the fact that he was withdrawn from Washington because he had lost the confidence of the prime minister, the government obviously found that to be inappropriate and unacceptable. The settlement that was agreed was to avoid even higher further costs involving a drawn-out legal claim at the employment tribunal.

Mandelson suggested using Farage to ‘better UK connections with Trump’, documents reveal

Peter Mandelson suggested using Nigel Farage to “better UK connections with the Trump administration”, according to the files.

In the Cabinet Office due diligence report, included among the documents released by the government, Mandelson was quoted as saying of Farage: “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.”

Chief secretary to the prime minister, Darren Jones, updated the Commons on the release of government documents relating to Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US.

He said that while the documents “point to public reports of an ongoing relationship” between Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein, “the advice did not expose the depth and extent of their relationship”, which only became apparent after the release “of further files” by Bloomberg and then the US justice department.

He said:

After the prime minister reviewed the Cabinet Office due diligence, that noted public reporting on Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, questions were put to Peter Mandelson by advisers in No 10 … and Peter Mandelson responded.

These are matters that are currently the subject of an ongoing police investigation and we will publish this document when the investigation allows.

When we do, the House will be able to see Peter Mandelson’s answers for themselves, which the prime minister regrets believing.

Peter Mandelson asked Foreign Office for £500k severance payment, files show

Jessica Elgot

Peter Mandelson was offered a severance payment of £75,000 – having initially asked the Foreign Office to pay him more than £500,000 upon his sacking as US ambassador, newly released documents reveal.

Exchanges in the documents released by the Cabinet Office suggested that officials did “well to get this settlement down this low with minimal fuss”, after Mandelson was forced to resign as ambassador to the US because of newly disclosed details about his long friendship with the disgraced financier Jeffery Epstein.

The chief secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, signed off the £75,000 payment – a combination of payment in lieu of notice as well as a special severance deal of £34,670.50. Officials discussing the payment said Mandelson “opened negotiations asking us to pay out his contract (over £500k).” The full amount requested would have been £547,000.

Read the full report here:

National security adviser found Mandelson appointment ‘weirdly rushed’, according to documents

National security adviser Jonathan Powell found the appointment process “unusual” and “weirdly rushed”, the documents reveal.

In a segment titled “Record of call with National Security Adviser”, the documents summarised a phone call between Powell and Mike Ostheimer, the general counsel to the prime minister.

It said: “Jonathan Powell (JP) found the appointment process unusual of Lord Mandelson (LM) weirdly rushed.

“JP doesn’t recall any specific meetings on this that he was involved in, though there were a few conversations.

“JP raised concerns about the individual and reputation to Morgan McSweeney (MM).”

McSweeney resigned from his role of chief of staff to the prime minister last month over the Mandelson scandal.

The documents continued: “MM responded that the issues had been addressed.”

Mandelson asked for more than £500,000 severance pay, according to documents

Peter Mandelson asked for more than £500,000 severance pay but got £75,000, according to the newly released documents.

He received £75,000, made up of £40,330 pay in lieu of notice to cover the three months notice period in his contract and £34,670 special severance payment.

Under the heading “Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein”, the due diligence report noted:

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’.

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.

On reporting of the JP Morgan report, Lord Mandelson’s spokesperson said ‘Lord Mandelson very much regrets ever having been introduced to Epstein. This connection has been a matter of public record for some time. He never had any kind of professional or business relationship with Epstein in any form’.
A Labour Party spokesperson has previously commented saying “There are a whole range of people that Keir Starmer talks to. Obviously he talks to people who were part of the last Labour government, including Peter Mandelson.”

The report also pointed to a 2024 Telegraph report on the pair’s links.

It said: “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.”

The due diligence report concluded: “To note – general reputational risk.”

Due diligence report warns ‘general reputation risk’ over Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein, documents reveals

A due diligence report by the Cabinet Office on the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US found there was a “general reputational risk” over his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the documents reveal.

The due diligence report drawn up in December 2024 before his appointment noted a series of reports detailing his links with Epstein.

Here is one of those reports it detailed:

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.

First set of documents relating to Peter Mandelson published

The government has just published the first set of documents relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US.

Our team is reading through the documents, which are expected to relate to the process of his appointment as US ambassador in 2024. We will bring you the updates as they come.

Home secretary bans all processions related to Al Quds Day until 11 April

A ban on processions related to Al Quds Day will be in place until 11 April, home secretary Shabana Mahmood has told MPs.

In a statement to the Commons, she said:

My first duty is to keep the public safe, having carefully and thoroughly considered the risk … assessment presented to me by the Metropolitan Police, I am satisfied that an order under section 13 is necessary.

For one month there will therefore be a prohibition on processions in London related to Al Quds Day by protesters and counter-protesters, which will come into effect today and will end on the 11th of April.

Should the commissioner consider a further extension is required, he will be able to make a further submission at that time.

It follows the home secretary banning a pro-Palestinian march in London on Sunday after police warned of a risk of “serious public disorder”.

The annual al-Quds Day march has drawn criticism over apparent backing for the Iranian regime after its organisers expressed support for the country’s late leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Some participants in the past have waved the flag of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, which is banned in the UK as a terrorist group.

Alexandra Topping

Keir Starmer has attacked Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage over their stance on the war in Iran, accusing both of U-turning on their support for Donald Trump.

At a raucous prime minister’s questions, Starmer accused the leader of the opposition of making the “mother of all U-turns” and furiously trying to backpedal after she denied calling for the UK to join the US president’s war on Iran on Tuesday, after previously saying Starmer should do more to “stop the people who are attacking us”.

Last week Badenoch repeatedly pressed Starmer on his decision not to launch offensive strikes to destroy missile bases, asking: “Why is he asking our allies to do what we should be doing ourselves?”

On Wednesday, Starmer said: “If I’d asked her last week, her position would be, we support the initial strikes and we want to join the war. This week, she says, we don’t want to join the war.

“That is the mother of all U-turns on the single most important decision a prime minister ever has to take, whether to commit the United Kingdom to war or not.”

To cheers from his own backbenchers, he added: “She has utterly disqualified herself from ever becoming prime minister, thankfully she never will.”

Taz Ali

That concludes PMQs, with fuel duty and the war in Iran dominating the session today.

Starmer accused Badenoch of rowing back on calls for the UK to join the US in striking Iran, reminding her again and again of the comments she made last week about the British military “just hanging around” in the Middle East. He appeared confident in saying that he has made the right decisions so far on the conflict, which are in step with public opinion.

Answering questions on the cost of petrol, Starmer said fuel duty will remain frozen until September and will be “kept under review in light of what’s happening in Iran”, although he is under pressure to cancel it amid rising oil prices caused by the war.

We are expecting the Mandelson documents this afternoon, follow us here to get the latest lines.

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