Keir Starmer urged to claw again Peter Mandelson’s ‘enormous payoff’ after he was sacked over Jeffrey Epstein hyperlinks – however Labour WON’T say how a lot disgraced ex-ambassador pocketed

Sir Keir Starmer is being urged to claw back taxpayers’ cash from Peter Mandelson amid claims he received a substantial payout after being sacked as US ambassador.

The Prime Minister is facing fresh pressure to disclose whether the disgraced peer was handed a severance payment following his dismissal as a senior diplomat.

Lord Mandelson was removed from his role in Washington DC, said to be worth around £160,000-a-year, by Sir Keir in September last year over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Fresh revelations about his links to the paedophile – included in millions of documents newly-released in the US – have now intensified scrutiny of Lord Mandelson’s appointment.

Sir Keir, who handpicked the ex-Cabinet minister for the US ambassador role before being forced to sack him, has told Lord Mandelson he ‘let his country down’.

It came after US Department of Justice files appeared to show Lord Mandelson passing sensitive material to Epstein while serving in Gordon Brown’s government.

Downing Street on Tuesday revealed the Cabinet Office has referred material to the police after an initial review of the so-called ‘Epstein files’ suggested official handling safeguards were ‘compromised’.

Government ministers have also indicated that Lord Mandelson ‘lied’ about his past links to Eptstein when he was vetted for the ambassador job.

But No10 refused to comment on ‘HR matters’ when quizzed about the financial terms of Lord Mandelson’s sacking last year.

Sir Keir Starmer is being urged to claw back taxpayers’ cash from Peter Mandelson amid claims he received a substantial payout after being sacked as US ambassador

A photograph released as part of the ‘Epstein files’ shows Lord Mandelson in his underwear talking to a woman who is wearing a white bath robe

Asked if any efforts were being made to claw back taxpayers’ cash from Lord Mandelson, the PM’s official spokesman told reporters: ‘I’m not going to get into HR matters.

‘More broadly, anything of that nature would be set out in annual accounts in line with usual processes.’

If Lord Mandelson did secure a hefty compensation package after being withdrawn as US ambassador, he will have followed a long line of others before him who were paid out after being forced to step down. 

Sir Tom Scholar, the top official at the Treasury, was sacked just days after Liz Truss became prime minister and received an exit payout of £335,000.

Jonathan Slater, the former permanent secretary at the Department for Education, received a £277,780 payout after he left in 2021 following backlash over the use of a controversial algorithm to award A-Level and other exam grades. 

Alicia Kearns, the senior Conservative MP, on Monday night revealed she had so far received no answers about a possible severance payment for Lord Mandelson despite writing to Cabinet Secretary Sir Chris Wormald in December.

As he answered questions in the House of Commons, Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, was asked by Ms Kearns: ‘I am afraid that a number of questions to the Cabinet Secretary… still have not been answered.

‘Did Mandelson receive a taxpayer-funded severance payment after stepping down as ambassador? If so, how much was it?

‘Will details of his contract be published, in the name of transparency? Was any non-disclosure agreement signed, and when did Lord Mandelson’s salary formally cease? 

‘These are not unreasonable questions, but almost two months on, I have had no response from the Cabinet Secretary. That gives me enormous concern.’

Mr Jones replied: ‘I will feed what she has said back to the Cabinet Secretary and ensure that she gets appropriate answers to her questions.’

In a recent interview with The Times, Lord Mandelson compared his sacking as US ambassador to a ‘5.30am drive-by shooting’.

He revealed how he and his husband, after receiving a call from Downing Street, were told to vacate the ambassador’s residence ‘in a week, with everything packed up and removed’.

‘It felt like being killed without actually dying,’ Lord Mandelson added, before dismissing the prospect of him disappearing from public life over the scandal.

He continued: ‘Hiding under a rock would be a disproportionate response to a handful of misguided historical emails, which I deeply regret sending.

‘If it hadn’t been for the emails, I’d still be in Washington. Emails sent all those years ago didn’t change the relationship that I had with this monster.

‘I feel the same about the recent download of Epstein files, none of which indicate wrongdoing or misdemeanour on my part.’

In November last year, the Foreign Office’s top official refused to say whether Lord Mandelson had received a payoff.

Sir Oliver Robbins told MPs on the Commons’ Foreign Affairs committee: ‘The way in which we deal with individual employees’ termination under their contract must remain confidential between us…

‘So I am not at liberty to say whether a settlement was made in his case.

‘All I can tell you is that it was done absolutely in accordance with his written contract with us.’

Sir Oliver insisted that ‘any implications of his termination will be reported in our annual report and accounts’.