{"id":89682,"date":"2026-02-03T07:17:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T07:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=89682"},"modified":"2026-02-03T07:17:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T07:17:48","slug":"the-fallout-from-mandelson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/02\/03\/the-fallout-from-mandelson\/","title":{"rendered":"The fallout from Mandelson"},"content":{"rendered":"

What to think of Peter Mandelson's conduct?<\/p>\n

I will place my cards face up on the table. I have always loathed the man.<\/p>\n

I have met him once. I don't think he liked me any more than I liked him. We met when he was Business Secretary, and I was working on tackling tax haven abuse, an issue popular with Downing Street and the Treasury at the time. I was welcomed in both. The message had not reached Mandelson.<\/p>\n

He was the 'Prince of Darkness' for decades.<\/p>\n

And for decades, questions over his ethics have rightly been raised and never satisfactorily answered.<\/p>\n

Now the question is not just whether he has been corrupt, but whether he might also have committed crimes. After all, isn't sharing secret government documents an offence under the Official Secrets Act? Why just investigate this as potential misconduct in public office, from which investigations nothing ever arises, when it seems so much more serious than that? Others will need to decide, but that, surely, is an investigation that needs to be undertaken.<\/p>\n

Then, the need for an urgent update to the Titles Deprivation Act of 1917<\/a> seems to be required.<\/p>\n

And then Mandelson needs to be stripped of his title.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Starmer and the security services also need to answer questions. How could they not have known about what he was doing? The chance that blind eyes were turned appears to be horribly high. Starmer cannot avoid that allegation. We will not let him do so. And the questions should also be asked of Mandelson's great friend in No. 10, and the supposed power behind Starmer, Morgan McSweeney. Is Starmer, in fact, just Mandelson's pick to advance his own agenda of hate against the left of Labour?<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, in all this, might we recall that Epstein might have been an enabler of financial wrongdoing, but the real victims here are the women and girls who were abused, and not one of the absuers has come close to a proper punishment for what they did, excepting one woman, who might have been guilty of offences, but was clearly not the only person who was.<\/p>\n

The Epstein case is not going away anytime soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What to think of Peter Mandelson’s conduct? I will place my cards face up on the table. I have always loathed the man. I have
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