LONDON (AP) — A year ago, Peter Mandelson was Britain’s ambassador to Washington, the latest high-profile post in a rocky but consequential political career.
Friendship with Jeffrey Epstein cost him that job. Now, after new revelations, Mandelson — like other powerful men including King Charles III's brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — is facing demands he come clean about his relationship with the late sex offender.
Mandelson resigned from the governing Labour Party on Sunday following new claims he received payments from Epstein two decades ago. Mandelson said he was stepping aside to avoid causing “further embarrassment,” even as he denied the allegations stemming from a trove of more than 3 million pages of documents relating to Epstein released by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who fired Mandelson from his ambassadorial job over earlier revelations about his Epstein ties, now faces pressure to get Mandelson to testify in the U.S. about what he knew of the financier's activities.
On Monday, Starmer urged Mandelson to resign from the House of Lords — Parliament's unelected upper chamber of politicians, donors and assorted notables — to which he was appointed for life in 2008. That would also mean relinquishing the noble title, Lord Mandelson, that he received at the time.
If he refuses, ejecting him would be a lengthy process requiring Parliament to pass legislation — a process last undertaken more than a century ago to remove the titles of aristocrats who sided with Germany in World War I.
“The prime minister believes that Peter Mandelson should not be a member of the House of Lords or use the title,” said Starmer spokesman Tom Wells. “However, the prime minister does not have the power to remove it.”
Mandelson — like Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew — is also facing calls to testify about Epstein in the U.S.
Cabinet minister Steve Reed said Monday that both men have a “moral obligation” to help Epstein’s victims.
“If anybody has information or evidence that they can share that might help to understand what’s gone on and bring justice for those victims, then they should share it, whether that is Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, whether it’s Lord Mandelson, or whether it’s anybody else,” he told Sky News.
Epstein died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on U.S. federal charges accusing him of sexually abusing dozens of girls. Years before he had avoided federal prosecution by pleading guilty to state charges in Florida of solicitation of prostitution involving a minor and another charge.
The latest release of Epstein files includes hundreds of text and email messages exchanged between Mandelson and the financier, revealing the British politician's warm relationship with the man he called “my best pal” in 2003.
Several documents seem to refer to payments from Epstein to Mandelson or his partner, Reinaldo Avila da Silva. What appear to be bank statements from 2003 and 2004 suggest an Epstein account sent three payments totaling $75,000 to accounts connected to Mandelson.
Mandelson has questioned the authenticity of the bank statements. In a letter to Labour resigning from the party, Mandelson said he had no recollection of receiving that money and would investigate.
“While doing this I do not wish to cause further embarrassment to the Labour Party and I am therefore stepping down from membership of the party,” he wrote.
Mandelson added that he wanted to “repeat my apology to the women and girls whose voices should have been heard long before now.”
Other documents suggest that in 2009 Epstein sent da Silva 10,000 pounds (about $13,650 at today's rates) to pay for an osteopathy course.
The documents also include an email exchange from 2009 in which Mandelson, then a U.K. government minister, appeared to tell Epstein he would lobby other members of the government to reduce a tax on bankers’ bonuses.
Documents also suggest Mandelson sent details of sensitive U.K. government discussions to Epstein after the 2008 global financial crisis.
Starmer on Monday ordered the civil service to conduct an “urgent” review of all of Mandelson’s contacts with Epstein while he was in government.
Also among the files is a photo of Mandelson in a shirt and underwear, standing near an unidentified woman in a bathrobe.
A email requesting comment on the documents was sent to Mandelson through the House of Lords.
Mandelson, 72, has been a major, if contentious, figure in the center-left Labour Party for decades. He is a skilled — critics say ruthless — political operator whose mastery of political intrigue earned him the nickname “Prince of Darkness.”
The grandson of former Labour Cabinet minister Herbert Morrison, he was an architect of the party’s return to power in 1997 as centrist, modernizing “New Labour” under Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Mandelson served in senior government posts under Blair between 1997 and 2001, and under Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2008 to 2010. In between, he was the European Union’s trade commissioner.
Mandelson twice had to resign from government during the Blair administration over allegations of financial or ethical impropriety, acknowledging mistakes but denying wrongdoing.
He later returned to government, and was back on the political front line when Starmer named him to the key post of ambassador to Washington at the start of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term. Mandelson’s trade expertise and comfort around the ultra-rich were considered major assets with the administration. He helped secure a trade deal in May that spared Britain some of the tariffs Trump has imposed on countries around the world.
But Starmer fired him in September after emails were published showing Mandelson's friendship with Epstein continued even after the financier's 2008 guilty plea.
This story has been updated to correct that documents suggest Epstein sent Mandelson's partner 10,000 pounds, not $10,000. It was also updated to correct that the Justice Department says the release contains more than 3 million pages of documents, not more than 3 million documents.
FILE - Britain's Ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, speaks during a reception at the ambassador's residence on Feb. 26, 2025 in Washington. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP, File)
FILE - President Donald Trump, left, gets a reaction from Britian's ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson, right, as they take questions from members of the media after announcing a trade deal between U.S. and U.K. in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, May 8, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, file)
FILE - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, right, talks with Britain's ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson during a welcome reception at the ambassador's residence on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025 in Washington. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP, file)
CAIRO (AP) — Medical evacuees from Gaza entered Egypt on Monday as the Rafah border crossing reopened, marking a key step in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire but a mostly symbolic one. Few people will be allowed to travel in either direction and no goods will pass through.
Ambulances waited for hours at the border before ferrying patients across after sunset, Egypt’s state-run Al-Qahera News satellite television channel showed. The crossing had been closed since Israeli troops seized it in May 2024.
About 20,000 Palestinian children and adults needing medical care hope to leave the devastated territory via the crossing, according to Gaza health officials. Thousands of other Palestinians outside the territory hope to enter and return home.
The number of travelers is expected to increase over time if the system is successful. Israel has said it and Egypt will vet people for exit and entry.
The office of the North Sinai governor confirmed that the first Palestinian patient crossed into Egypt.
Before the war, Rafah was the main crossing for people moving in and out of Gaza. The territory’s handful of other crossings are all shared with Israel. Under the terms of the ceasefire, which went into effect in October, Israel’s military controls the area between the Rafah crossing and the zone where most Palestinians live.
Violence continued across the coastal territory Monday, and Gaza hospital officials said an Israeli navy ship had fired on a tent camp, killing a 3-year-old Palestinian boy. Israel’s military said it was looking into the incident.
Rajaa Abu Mustafa stood Monday outside a Gaza hospital where her 17-year-old son Mohamed was awaiting evacuation. He was blinded by a shot to the eye last year as he joined desperate Palestinians seeking food from aid trucks east of the southern city of Khan Younis.
“We have been waiting for the crossing to open,” she said. “Now it’s opened and the health ministry called and told us that we will travel to Egypt for (his) treatment.”
About 150 hospitals across Egypt are ready to receive Palestinian patients evacuated from Gaza through Rafah, authorities said. The Egyptian Red Crescent said it has readied “safe spaces” on the Egyptian side of the crossing to support those evacuated from Gaza.
Israel has banned sending patients to hospitals in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem since the war began, cutting off what was previously the main outlet for Palestinians needing medical treatment unavailable in Gaza.
The Rafah crossing will be supervised by European Union border patrol agents with a small Palestinian presence.
Historically, Israel and Egypt have vetted Palestinians applying to cross. Fearing that Israel could use the crossing to push Palestinians out of the enclave, Egypt has repeatedly said it must be open for them to enter and exit Gaza.
A 3-year-old Palestinian was killed when Israel navy hit tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, Palestinian hospital authorities said.
According to Nasser hospital, which received the body, the attack happened in Muwasi, a tent camp area on Gaza’s coast.
More than 520 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire went into effect on Oct. 10, according to Gaza's health ministry. The casualties since the ceasefire are among the over 71,800 Palestinians killed since the start of Israel’s offensive, according to ministry, which does not say how many were fighters or civilians.
The ministry, which is part of Gaza's Hamas-led government, keeps detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.
Israeli troops seized the Rafah crossing in May 2024, calling it part of efforts to combat arms-smuggling for the militant Hamas group. The crossing was briefly opened for the evacuation of medical patients during a ceasefire in early 2025.
Israel had resisted reopening the Rafah crossing, but the recovery of the remains of the last hostage in Gaza cleared the way to move forward.
The reopening is seen as a key step as the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement moves into its second phase.
The truce halted more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas that began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Its first phase called for the exchange of all hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel, an increase in badly needed humanitarian aid and a partial pullback of Israeli troops.
The second phase of the ceasefire deal is more complicated. It calls for installing the new Palestinian committee to govern Gaza, deploying an international security force, disarming Hamas and taking steps to begin rebuilding.
Federman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Julia Frankel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
This story has been corrected to show that the latest figure from Gaza's Health Ministry says 71,800 Palestinians have been killed.
Ambulances line up to enter the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Egypt, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)
Juman Al-Najjar, a 3-year-old Palestinian patient, looks out from a vehicle with other patients in Khan Younis as they head to the Rafah crossing, leaving the Gaza Strip for medical treatment abroad, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian patients wave from a vehicle in Khan Younis on their way to the Rafah crossing, as they leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment abroad, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A U.N. vehicle escorts a bus carrying Palestinian patients in Khan Younis as they head to the Rafah crossing, leaving the Gaza Strip for medical treatment abroad, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian patients board a vehicle in Khan Younis on their way to the Rafah crossing, as they leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment abroad, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Juman Al-Najjar, a 3-year-old Palestinian patient, looks out from a vehicle with other patients in Khan Younis as they head to the Rafah crossing, leaving the Gaza Strip for medical treatment abroad, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Mourners pray beside the body of Iyad Abu Rabi, 3, who was killed when an Israeli strike hit tents sheltering displaced people along the coast of Khan Younis, according to hospital officials, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Khadija Abu Rabi cradles the body of her son, Iyad, 3, who was killed when an Israeli strike hit tents sheltering displaced people along the coast of Khan Younis, according to hospital officials, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Khadija Abu Rabi mourns over the body of her son, Iyad, 3, who was killed when an Israeli strike hit tents sheltering displaced people along the coast of Khan Younis, according to hospital officials, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Monday, Feb. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
A crane enters the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing to the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)
Trucks carrying humanitarian aids line up to enter the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing, heading for inspection by Israeli authorities before entering the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)
Ambulances line up to enter the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing on the way to the Gaza Strip, in Rafah, Egypt, Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)
