UK Foreign Office to investigate pay-off to Epstein-related US ambassador

The United Kingdom Foreign Ministry said on Sunday (Feb 8, 2026) it is reviewing the severance payment to former US ambassador Peter Mandelson, who was fired over links to convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Mr Mandelson received an estimated payment of between £38,750 and £55,000 ($52,000 and $74,000) after just seven months as British ambassador to the United States, according to a report. The Sunday Times.

Documents released by the US Department of Justice on January 30 show that Mr Mandelson leaked confidential UK government information to the late Epstein when he was a British minister, including on the 2008 financial crisis.

The revelations have put intense pressure on Labor Prime Minister Keir Stormer and triggered a police investigation into party insider Mandelson, 72, for alleged misconduct in public office.

The Foreign Office said in a statement that it had launched a review into Mr Mandelson’s severance payment “in light of further information that has now come to light and the ongoing police investigation”.

Cabinet minister Pat McFadden insisted Mr Stormer should remain in office despite making a “terrible mistake” in appointing Mandelson.

Close Mr Stormer told allied broadcasters the party wanted to stick with the prime minister.

“He (Starmer) has to be realistic and accept that this is a horror story, that this appointment was a terrible mistake,” McFadden, the Work and Pensions Secretary, told BBC television.

He said the real blame “is on Peter Mandelson” for putting himself forward for the job despite knowing the extent of his relationship with Epstein.

Mr Stormer’s deputy, David Lammy, became the first cabinet minister to be away from the prime minister, a report said. The Sunday Telegraph.

Mr. Epstein said the minister was not in favor of appointing Mandelson, a prominent figure in British politics for decades, because of his known connections. The report cited friends of Lammy.

The Stormers’ Labor Party swept to power in a landslide election victory just 18 months ago.

But it has followed Nigel Farage’s anti-immigrant reform UK as the government has come under fire over the crisis over immigration, economic growth and the cost of living.

Reform UK led by double digits in the polls last year.

Mandelson, a former European Union trade commissioner, stepped down from the House of Lords, the unelected upper house of parliament, earlier this week.

Epstein fired Mr Stormer in September after the earlier release of the documents.

The former ambassador was one of several prominent figures embarrassed by the latest revelations last week of his ties to financier Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while facing sex-trafficking charges.

Mishkan de Rea, a spokesman for the law firm representing Mandelson, said the latter “repents and will regret until his dying day that he believed Epstein’s lies about his guilt.”

“Lord Mandelson did not discover the truth about Epstein until his death in 2019. He deeply regrets that powerless and vulnerable women and girls were not given the protection they deserved,” the law firm said.