British politician and peer Peter Mandelson tried to help convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in arranging for a visit by his “goddaughter” to 10 Downing Street at a time when Epstein was in prison for procuring a minor for prostitution, emails released by the US Department of Justice reveal.
Mandelson was serving as business secretary in the government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown and sitting on the House of Lords frontbench at the time. Epstein, meanwhile, was a convicted sex offender and was serving an 18-month sentence in Florida.
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In an email exchange, Epstein told Glenn Dubin, a hedge fund manager whose child he called his “goddaughter”, that he would “organize a trip to Number !O, and the House of Lords with Peter Mandelson for you guys”.
On the same day, Epstein wrote directly to Mandelson saying that “the most important person to me next to you of course) is my goddaughter that will be in London on Wednesday and Thursday of next week what can we do to make it a very special trip, I would really appreciate it”.
In the exchange, Mandelson asks, “how old?, to which Epstein replied “15”, adding that she will be with her parents. “House of lords, number 10, just for ten minutes, it would mean a lot to me”, he added.
Mandelson responds: “Fine on all”. Epstein responds: “Great”.
Days later, Mandelson replied that he was “trying my best to accommodate” the request and that “we are still on the case… [and] hope something will fall into place”. Epstein subsequently forwarded Mandelson’s response to Dubin.
‘Andrew had tea with the Dubin kids’
These emails are among thousands of messages in the latest tranche of the Epstein files that mention Mandelson – a central figure in modern British politics for decades, long noted for his ability to survive repeated scandals. The exchange offers a glimpse into how Epstein appeared to leverage his relationship with Mandelson while he was in the United Kingdom’s government. In turn, Mandelson appeared willing to open doors for Epstein while he was a convicted sex offender.
Al Jazeera has contacted Downing Street for comment.
Dubin later wrote to Epstein: “Grt time in buck palace…. ….andrew was great. Thx! G”
Fifteen minutes later, Epstein wrote to convicted child sex trafficker and former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell: “andrew had tea with the dubin kids and glenn.”
The emails appear to refer to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, ex-prince and brother of Britain’s King Charles. Mountbatten-Windsor was accused by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre of sexual assault, specifically alleging he raped her on three occasions in 2001 when she was 17, as part of a sex-trafficking ring run by Epstein. These allegations led to a 2021 lawsuit for sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress, which was later settled out of court.
Glenn Dubin’s daughter and Epstein’s so-called goddaughter is Celina Dubin. She is the daughter of Eva Andersson-Dubin, a former girlfriend of Epstein.
Email exchanges suggest that following this visit to London, Epstein stayed in contact with Glenn Dubin’s daughter — who the sex offender called his “goddaughter”.
Calls for UK prime minister to resign
The correspondence raises questions about why Peter Mandelson – who was aware of Epstein’s conviction for procuring a minor for prostitution – was prepared to facilitate an arrangement for Epstein and an underage girl while he was a UK government minister.
At the time of the 2009 exchange, Mandelson had returned to government, serving in a senior Labour role from 2008 to 2010. After leaving office, he built a lucrative global consulting career before re-entering public life, when Prime Minister Keir Starmer appointed him ambassador to the United States in 2024.
His relationship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, has since become a problem that will not go away for the UK government, and has even led to calls for Starmer to resign.
The release of some Epstein files by the US Department of Justice in September 2025 led to Mandelson stepping down as US ambassador. A second tranche, published on January 30, alleged that he had passed sensitive government information to Epstein on several occasions, according to the files. The claims prompted the British government to refer the matter to police for possible prosecution. Mandelson was briefly arrested in February before being released on bail, while investigations into allegations against him continue.
The political fallout, meanwhile, has since widened, forcing the resignation of two senior government aides. In an attempt to contain the crisis, the prime minister said all documents relating to Mandelson’s appointment would be made public, a move that has instead intensified scrutiny.
The initial release of what have become known as the “Mandelson files” showed that, ahead of his appointment to Washington, UK officials had explicitly warned that his long-standing ties to Epstein posed a “reputational risk” to the country.
Government documents indicate that during the vetting process in late 2024, Mandelson repeatedly denied key aspects of his relationship with Epstein, including whether he had stayed with the sex offender after his 2008 conviction. However, internal correspondence shows officials were aware of the relationship, discussed it as part of due diligence, and raised concerns with the prime minister’s chief of staff. The appointment nonetheless went ahead.
Starmer has since apologised for the decision. Further WhatsApp messages are expected to be released in the coming days, and could prompt fresh calls for Starmer’s resignation, raising questions about how much more damage the UK government can sustain.
‘Like the bad boy you are’
One of Mandelson’s first recorded interactions from the files is with Ghislaine Maxwell.
As far back as June 2002, the emails show him already in direct contact with her, stepping into a world that blurred intimacy and power.
“I love disgusting. That’s why I am wild and dangerous…” Mandelson wrote to Maxwell.
In the same exchange, the tone shifted to potential political and business advisory work in the United States, invoking contacts linked to former US Senator George Mitchell.
In the same exchange, Mandelson appears to have gate-crashed a lunch with Epstein, prompting a rebuke relayed through Maxwell: “You spoiled Jeffrey’s lunch. Pete, I have warned you about that before. Behave or you will be punished like the bad boy you are.”
At the time, Mandelson was in exile from political life. It was 2002, and he had already been forced to resign twice from government — first, after taking a loan of 373,000 pounds ($496,700) from fellow minister Geoffrey Robinson to help purchase a house, then after being accused of intervening in a passport application for the businessman Srichand Hinduja.
It was in this vacuum of political hiatus that Mandelson would cultivate his business and personal connections with Epstein.
These early messages set the pattern for what followed: Long, meandering exchanges between Mandelson and Epstein in which sexual innuendo sits alongside business.
By 2003, messages from Mandelson to Epstein were being preserved in a 50th birthday book compiled for Epstein. Several pages show photographs of the two men together, accompanied by handwritten notes in which Mandelson refers to Epstein as his “best pal”.
The book itself was gifted in 2003, but it remained out of public view until its release two decades later, in September last year.
Financial links also surface from this release of files. Bank statements from 2003 and June 2004 appear to show Epstein making several payments, worth $25,000 each, to accounts associated with Mandelson, as reported by the Financial Times.
Other emails also suggest Mandelson desired a life that domestic politics could not afford. Epstein offered Mandelson access to the seemingly limitless excess of the ultra-wealthy. “When are you going to the island at Xmas? I am having trouble getting air tickets to St Barts and was wondering about going via US, NY or Miami,” asked Mandelson in one exchange in 2005.
Epstein’s reply was characteristically transactional. “I can pay for your tickets if needed.” Whether the offer was accepted remains unclear. Another message from Maxwell to Epstein read: “Asked Mandelson how he is getting to the island – he sd I hope JE is sending the chopper…so I take it you want me to give him a ride on the plane”.
The messages suggest that Mandelson was impressed by the allure of Epstein’s island in the Caribbean – and his mansion in New York that he frequented repeatedly, according to the correspondence released by the Justice Department. Pictures that have since shown Mandelson in a dressing gown laughing with Epstein alongside Mountbatten-Windsor, who was then Prince Andrew — he was stripped of his royal titles in late 2025 because of the revelations of his close relationship with Epstein.
Another released photo shows Mandelson in his underwear speaking with an unidentified woman at what was reportedly Epstein’s residence.
In another email in 2002, Mandelson told Maxwell of a cancelled meeting in Paris and then asked her if he could “stay on for a few days to have complete peace”. It is unclear why he was seeking her permission to stay in Paris — and whether Maxwell and Epstein were covering his costs in the French capital.
Then, in 2008, Epstein was arrested on suspicion of soliciting a minor for prostitution. While many of his former contacts have said that they cut off ties with him around this time, the files reveal that Mandelson positioned himself as a kind of informal counsellor, coaching Epstein through the mounting allegations.
“You are fighting back so you need strategy,” he wrote. He pressed repeatedly for updates, for “developments”, and asked whether everything was being handled.
“Hope you are strategising,” he added, in another message.
Upon finding out about the conviction, Mandelson wrote: “I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened … Your friends stay with you and love you.”
‘Special unpaid adviser’
Following Epstein’s conviction, the two did not cut off contact. The files suggest that Mandelson and Epstein were in more regular communication even as the financier was serving a prison sentence for soliciting prostitution with an underage girl.
This rate of emails again intensified in June 2009, when Mandelson was appointed first secretary of state, effectively the second most powerful figure in Gordon Brown’s government. Epstein appeared to take pride in the promotion. In one message, Epstein circulated a Guardian article about Mandelson’s new role to Maxwell and alleged sex trafficker and model scout Jean-Luc Brunel. In another email, he congratulated Epstein for his “comeback” and said his appointment made him “proud”. In another, he broadcast the news to his network of powerful associates, including senior figures at JPMorgan such as Jes Staley, writing to him: “For all intents and purposes Peter Mandelson is now deputy prime minister”.
At times, Epstein seemed to act as an intermediary between Mandelson and Staley – who, according to multiple documents in the Epstein files, is alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman, a claim he denies.
The files suggest Epstein passed messages between Mandelson and senior JPMorgan figures, facilitating introductions and discussions around financial and policy matters. Staley, for instance, asked Epstein to arrange meetings with Mandelson, which appeared to take place in December 2009, February 2010, and a call set up by Epstein in March 2010 – and another call with either Mandelson or then-Chancellor Alistair Darling in January 2010.
The tone of the correspondence oscillated between admiration and calculation. In one exchange, Epstein described Mandelson as “devious” after he lobbied a bank to underwrite a mining project backed by their mutual associate Nat Rothschild, as reported by the Guardian.
Epstein also began offering advice. He suggested Mandelson could leverage his new position, “in charge of all universities”, to establish a prize in “cyberwar artificial general intelligence”, an area in which Epstein himself held business interests. Mandelson’s reply was telling: “You can become my special unpaid adviser.”
Other messages reportedly suggest Mandelson may have tipped Epstein off about sensitive political developments, including Brown’s impending resignation in 2010 and a 500-billion-euro ($580bn) European Union bailout designed to stabilise the Greek debt crisis.
In a separate exchange, days after his appointment as first secretary of state, Mandelson forwarded Epstein a private email sent to Brown containing sensitive market information, including discussions of potential government asset sales, tax policy, and business expectations that the Conservatives would win the next election.
The forwarded “interesting note” was from Nick Butler, a special adviser, outlining “business issues” for the prime minister. Epstein, still in prison at the time, responded with policy advice of his own. The government, he wrote, should consider not only physical assets but “INTELLECTUAL assets, that are not being exploited”, effectively advising a sitting cabinet minister on economic strategy.
‘You are the only person that knows everything about me’
The weekend after this correspondence, Mandelson appeared to have stayed at Epstein’s residence. At the same time, the two continued a close personal relationship. In one exchange, Mandelson told Epstein: “Had a long dream about you last night.”
In another exchange, Epstein appeared to act as a confidant. Mandelson, writing from the Lords frontbench while seemingly engaged in parliamentary business, asked whether Epstein had spoken to a contact.
The correspondence then turned to a figure named Simone. “I am worried about Simone who is totally despairing,” Mandelson wrote. “I am not sure what else to do. Any ideas?”
Epstein advised him to travel to New York: “Yes, you should go to New York for a weekend… I have been consistent on this. Do not lose the opportunity. Coming across people you really enjoy is rare – don’t be lazy, get on a plane.”
“You are the only person who knows everything about me,” Mandelson later responded.
Weeks later, however, Epstein appeared to change his position. He wrote: “I’m rethinking the Simone issue with your new profile. I’m afraid it’s asking for serious trouble. It won’t be kept quiet. Rinalado will go ballistic. Fraught with danger.”
Financial links emerge again shortly after. It is widely reported that in September 2009, Mandelson’s husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, emailed Epstein requesting financial help to cover the costs of an osteopathy course, including fees, equipment and a laptop. Epstein agreed: “I will wire your loan amount immediately.”
A payment of 10,000 pounds ($13,310) followed. When da Silva sought clarification on whether the amount covered his school fees, Epstein confirmed it did. Mandelson, in turn, emailed Epstein with a note of caution: “Remind him that to avoid a gift-tax filing, it must be a loan.”
Days later, da Silva confirmed receipt of the funds: “Thank you for the money which arrived in my account this morning.”
The contact between Mandelson and Epstein did not end there. According to the files, the two remained in communication until 2016, while the UK government’s own due diligence report says the relationship continued until 2019.
In one of their final exchanges, Mandelson’s fascination with power appeared to endure. “By the way, as political practitioner, Donald is phenomenal,” he wrote, referring to US President Donald Trump. “The craft and tenacity are amazing.”
