Lord Peter Mandelson told Jeffrey Epstein in 2009 that the boss of JPMorgan should “mildly threaten” Britain’s chancellor over a tax on banker bonuses proposed by the government in which Mandelson was serving as business secretary, according to newly released documents.
The revelations add further pressure to Mandelson, after the FT reported that he received £75,000 from Epstein beginning in 2003 and that his husband also took money from the convicted sex offender. On Sunday night Mandelson said that, in an effort to avoid causing the party “further embarrassment”, he had resigned from the Labour party.
Emails released by the US Department of Justice show Mandelson, who served in government under successive Labour administrations, trying to “amend” a supertax on bank bonuses announced by then chancellor Alistair Darling in December 2009.