The British government said Wednesday it will release emails and other records about the decision to appoint former diplomat Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the United States after lawmakers demanded more transparency over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer told lawmakers that Mandelson had misled his team about the extent of the relationship.
He added that the government would publish materials related to the appointment, except for information that could compromise national security, international relations, or an active police investigation.
Starmer said, "Mandelson betrayed our country, our Parliament, and my party."
The dispute escalated in the House of Commons as the Conservative Party pressed for a formal vote compelling the government to lay papers before Parliament.
After hours of debate, the government agreed that Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, made up of lawmakers from several parties, would decide which papers to publish, rather than leaving the decision to a senior civil servant, as Starmer had proposed.
Starmer fired Mandelson, 72, in September after emails became public showing Mandelson stayed in touch with Epstein after Epstein's 2008 conviction for sex offenses involving a minor.
The same report said that Mandelson has since resigned from the House of Lords and that London police have opened an investigation into alleged misconduct in public office.
In a separate Commons exchange earlier this week, the government said that Mandelson had resigned from the Labour Party and that disciplinary action had been underway before his resignation.
The latest political fallout followed the U.S. Justice Department's release of now unclassified Epstein records.
In a Jan. 30 press release, the department said it published over 3 million more pages and, combined with prior releases, nearly 3.5 million pages, along with more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which it said was signed into law by President Donald Trump this past Nov. 19.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday that the department's position against opening new criminal investigations remained unchanged even after the large document dump.
Aside from a small number of items awaiting a judge's approval, "this review is over." Blanche said in a separate interview.
"I think it's really time for the country to maybe get onto something else," President Donald Trump told reporters Tuesday in the Oval Office.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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