Peter Mandelson appears to have met Jeffrey Epstein on a taxpayer-funded trip to America when the disgraced financier was under house arrest for sex offences, newly-uncovered documents indicate.
Epstein’s private schedule, unearthed by The Mail on Sunday, reveals Lord Mandelson was due to have two meetings with the convicted paedophile at his £60 million New York mansion on consecutive days in March, 2010, while on a trip that cost taxpayers more than £8,000.
At the time Lord Mandelson was Business Secretary and First Secretary of State – effectively the second most powerful politician in Gordon Brown’s government as de facto deputy prime minister.
Epstein, meanwhile, was under house arrest after being sentenced in 2008 to 18 months in jail by a Florida court for procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute.
Last night the Foreign Office refused to answer questions, including whether the Labour grandee’s two meetings with Epstein took place.
Lord Mandelson, 71, now the UK’s ambassador to the US, has said he ‘deeply regrets’ both ever meeting Epstein and the hurt caused to his victims.
He also claimed he never had any kind of professional or business relationship with him. But quizzed recently about his relationship with Epstein, who died in 2019, he told a senior Financial Times journalist to ‘f*** off’.
Lord Mandelson and the financier are believed to have been first introduced by Ghislaine Maxwell, who was jailed in 2022 for 20 years for helping Epstein traffic under-age girls.
A photo, thought to have been taken in 2005 or 2006, shows Lord Mandelson shopping with Epstein at a boutique in the US Virgin Islands (pictured)
Lord Mandelson (pictured) now the UK’s ambassador to the US, has said he ‘deeply regrets’ both ever meeting Epstein and the hurt caused to his victims
Jeffrey Epstein’s £60 million New York mansion was one of the largest private homes in Manhattan (pictured)
Epstein affectionately referred to Lord Mandelson as ‘Petie’.
A photo, thought to have been taken in 2005 or 2006, showed Lord Mandelson shopping with Epstein at a boutique in the US Virgin Islands.
Reacting to the MoS findings last night, former government minister Norman Baker said: ‘It’s hardly appropriate for one of the leading lights of the British Cabinet to be meeting up with a jailbird in New York. I think it’s time Mandelson came clean and explained his relationship with Epstein.’
During his sentence Epstein was able to go on ‘work release’ to his Florida office for 12 hours a day, six days a week. He then faced a year under house arrest until July 2010.
He spent much of that year at home in Palm Beach, Florida, but could also fly to his mansion in New York and his private island in the US Virgin Islands.
Now the MoS can reveal a schedule drawn up by Epstein’s former assistant Lesley Groff shows Lord Mandelson was due to see Epstein at his mansion on March 2, 2010.
Lord Mandelson had travelled to give a speech at New York University. A Cabinet Office document shows he also held ‘various bilaterals with senior officials’ during the two-day trip, which cost taxpayers £8,628.
Ms Groff’s schedule, handed over by Epstein’s estate in a US Virgin Islands government probe, shows Lord Mandelson was set to meet him at 7.30pm – two hours after Epstein was due to see his alleged ex-girlfriend, entrepreneur Shelley Lewis, and a mystery woman.
Lord Mandelson (pictured) and Jeffrey Epstein are believed to have been first introduced by Ghislaine Maxwell, who was jailed in 2022
At the time Lord Mandelson (right) was Business Secretary and First Secretary of State – effectively the second most powerful politician in Gordon Brown’s (left) government
At 9.30pm Epstein was due to meet former Barclays boss Jes Staley, who was later banned from holding any top financial services posts.
The paper also reveals the Labour peer had a second appointment scheduled for 1.30pm, again at the convicted paedophile’s six-storey mansion, the next day on March 3 – the day of his speech at NYU.
Epstein was under house arrest until July 21 and parole records reportedly confirm he was in New York on March 2 and March 3.
Last night Lord Mandelson’s spokesman declined to answer whether the peer attended the appointments.
The March 2010 US trip appears to be the second time Lord Mandelson visited Epstein’s New York mansion on 71st Street as a senior Cabinet minister.
Eight months earlier he was due to stay there after travelling to Washington DC on government business, according to a report by JP Morgan, where Mr Staley had worked as Epstein’s private banker.
In an email to Mr Staley on June 17, 2009, Epstein wrote: ‘Peter will be staying at 71st over the weekend…’
Cabinet Office records show Lord Mandelson met the heads of Mr Obama’s Auto task force, which oversaw the bailout of car makers, in Washington that week in a trip that cost taxpayers £5,696.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal a schedule drawn up by Epstein’s former assistant Lesley Groff shows Lord Mandelson (pictured) was due to see Epstein at his mansion on March 2, 2010
At 9.30pm Epstein was due to meet former Barclays boss Jes Staley (pictured), who was later banned from holding any top financial services posts
Lord Mandelson has refused to confirm or deny whether he stayed that weekend at Epstein’s townhouse.
Speaking last month to the FT, Lord Mandelson said: ‘I regret ever meeting him or being introduced to him by his partner Ghislaine Maxwell.
‘I regret even more the hurt he caused to many young women.’
He added: ‘I’m not going to go into this. It’s an FT obsession and frankly you can all f*** off. OK?’
