Peter Mandelson ought to hand again £55k Brit ambassador payout, high minister says
He got the cash after stepping down as Washington envoy last year over his friendship with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
Peter Mandelson is coming under growing pressure to hand back a £55,000 payout he got when he left his job(Image: AP)
Peter Mandelson should hand back a reported £55,000 payout he got for quitting as Brit ambassador to the US, a Government minister has said. He stepped down as Washington envoy last year as fresh details came to light over his friendship with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
This week he pledged to quit the House of Lords after more documents were published showing their relationship was closer than thought. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer faces calls to resign appointing Mandelson, 72, to the role despite warnings of his ties with Epstein.
Welfare secretary Pat McFadden said the Labour peer should give back the Foreign Office payout he pocketed when he left the job. The Foreign Office is understood to be reviewing the payment — thought to be worth three months’ salary.
Mr McFadden told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “I think Peter should reflect on that and either return it or give it to an appropriate charity.” The minister was a close ministerial ally of Mandelson’s in the last Labour government working as his deputy in the business department.
He said he had not known anything about his former boss’s relationship with Epstein and had been dismayed by emails that appeared to show Mandelson passing sensitive government information to the late US financier. “This is someone from whom I’ve sought political advice over the years, someone who I thought I knew well,” said Mr McFadden.
“But when I look at the emails that have been published in the last two weeks there’s a whole side of that I knew nothing of.” Mr McFadden said the PM should stay in his job despite mounting pressure on him to step down.
“I don’t think it’s good for the country to be changing its prime minister every 18 months to two years,” he said. “It has an economic cost, it has a confidence cost, it has an international reputation cost.”
Dame Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, branded Mandelson’s payout ‘disgusting’. She said: “A five-figure taxpayer-funded payout for Lord Mandelson is a disgusting betrayal of Epstein’s victims.
“Once again it raises very serious questions about the Prime Minister’s judgment. The government must ensure Mandelson’s golden goodbye is recovered in full.”
The Foreign Office said: “Peter Mandelson’s civil service employment was terminated in accordance with legal advice and the terms and conditions of his employment. As we have consistently said to parliament, normal civil service HR processes were followed.”
The department is understood to be reviewing the payment though officials believed at the time they had no legal option but to pay it. Sources told the Sunday Times Mandelson had asked for a much greater sum than he received.
Negotiations were conducted between the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s human resources department and his lawyers in the weeks after his sacking by Sir Olly Robbins, the department’s permanent under-secretary.
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