LONDON: Peter Mandelson, a former British ambassador to Washington, left the Labour Party on Sunday to avoid “further embarrassment” after fresh US records brought attention to his ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
According to records published on Friday by the US Department of Justice and reported in British media on Sunday, Mandelson, 72, who was fired as Britain’s ambassador to the US last year because of his ties to Epstein, allegedly received several payments from Epstein in the early 2000s.
Mandelson wrote to Labour general secretary Hollie Ridley, saying, “I need to look into allegations that I believe are false that he made financial payments to me 20 years ago and that I have no record or memory of.
He said, I don’t want to embarrass the Labour Party anymore, so I’m leaving the party. He said he was sorry about this. The US Justice Department has published bank records that show Epstein made three payments of $75,000 (55,000 pounds) to bank accounts associated to Mandelson between 2003 and 2004. Mandelson told the BBC earlier on Sunday that he didn’t remember the transfers and didn’t know if the documents were real.
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