Mandy legal professionals up: Criminal lawyer who ‘thinks like a chess grasp’ visits Lord Mandelson as Met probe continues
Peter Mandelson has been visited by a top criminal lawyer who ‘thinks like a chess master’.
David Corker from Corker Binning was seen leaving the house of the disgraced peer near Regent’s Park in London earlier today.
Scotland Yard has mounted a full criminal investigation into the Labour grandee after damning revelations about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
While he was a Cabinet minister, the former spin doctor repeatedly leaked him confidential government plans, emails suggest.
Two people believed to be police officers arrived on Friday afternoon outside Lord Mandelson’s £7.6million house near Regent’s Park – which the politician bought in 2011 following advice from Epstein.
He is the second lawyer to have been spotted outside Lord Mandelson’s home this weekend after ‘heavy-hitter’ Adrian Darbishire was pictured there yesterday.
The criminal investigation was announced on Tuesday after the Government and former prime minister Gordon Brown passed information to the Met.
David Corker from Corker Binning was seen leaving the house of the disgraced peer near Regent’s Park in London earlier today
Scotland Yard has mounted a full criminal investigation into the Labourgrandee after damning revelations about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
He is the second lawyer to have been spotted outside Lord Mandelson’s home this weekend after ‘heavy-hitter’ Adrian Darbishire was pictured there yesterday
It came as the Daily Mail uncovered further sensational details about Lord Mandelson’s dealings with Epstein, with whom he remained close even after the financier had been jailed for child sex offences.
One bombshell email seemingly showed the pair discussing confidential negotiations over a £10billion Ministry of Defence contract while Lord Mandelson was business secretary in Mr Brown’s government.
In another exchange, on the day Epstein was released from prison, the pair appeared to joke about celebrating with ‘two strippers’ – with Lord Mandelson branding his paedophile friend a ‘naughty boy’ for making the suggestion.
Lord Mandelson has previously suggested his status as a gay man meant he was ‘kept separate from what (Epstein) was doing in the sexual side of his life’.
Among the three million pages of so-called Epstein Files released by the US Department of Justice are bank statements that suggest Lord Mandelson and his husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, received payments from Epstein totalling tens of thousands of pounds.
Labour’s ‘Dark Lord’ is named as the recipient of three $25,000 (£21,500) payments, which he denies getting, while Mr da Silva was the subject of a standing order that paid out $4,000 (£2,900) a month for three months.
On Tuesday, the disgraced peer finally bowed to public pressure and resigned his seat in the House of Lords.
The Labour grandee, who has always denied wrongdoing, is now likely to be interviewed by officers over claims that his dealings with Epstein broke the law.
Detectives were seen entering Peter Mandelson’s home in London today, while further searches took place in Wiltshire
Lord Mandelson is pictured and mentioned many times throughout the released Epstein files
A police officer carrying a blue box walks towards the front door of Peter Mandelson’s house today
Cabinet ministers David Lammy and Pat McFadden, who served as junior ministers in his department, could also be asked to provide evidence, as could Mr Brown.
Confirmation of a police probe came just hours after Downing Street revealed that the Cabinet Office had sent its own dossier to detectives highlighting the ‘market-sensitive’ nature of the material apparently passed by Lord Mandelson to Epstein at the height of the financial crisis.
No 10 said Sir Keir Starmer was ‘appalled’ by the revelations. He told a meeting of his Cabinet that Lord Mandelson had ‘let his country down’.
But Kemi Badenoch said Sir Keir and his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, had ‘a lot of questions to answer’ about why they appointed Lord Mandelson as ambassador to the United States despite knowing he had maintained his friendship with the notorious paedophile.
The Tory leader branded the scandal a ‘national embarrassment’. She said the police inquiry was ‘inevitable’ given the seriousness of the allegations, but said people ‘should not let this distract us from the fact that the Prime Minister has his fingerprints all over this’.
She added: ‘I think the Prime Minister himself needs to come clean and tell us what he knew and when, and be honest about how this ever happened in the first place.’
Mr Corker has been approached for comment.
