Yvette Cooper has publicly blamed Whitehall’s HR and legal processes for handing Peter Mandelson a £75,000 payout following his dismissal as US ambassador — insisting she personally sought to block the payment on multiple occasions but was overruled.
The Foreign Secretary told The Sun she had asked for the payout to be reviewed “at different stages” during the process, but that legal and employment obligations within the Foreign Office ultimately prevailed. “As you can imagine, there’s been all sorts of legal processes and employment processes gone through, but at different stages I’ve asked for that to be reviewed,” she said. “I totally understand everyone’s frustration with this one, I can tell you.”
Cooper sacked Lord Mandelson as US ambassador last September following fresh revelations about his close friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Despite being dismissed in circumstances that generated widespread public anger, the Foreign Office subsequently paid Mandelson £75,000 — a sum that, while significantly less than the approximately half a million pounds he reportedly initially sought, has continued to enrage critics who believe a disgraced official should receive nothing from the public purse.
That anger was reignited last week following the emergence of new text messages showing Mandelson privately denigrating his own government, adding further embarrassment to an affair that has already generated months of damaging revelations for Labour. Cooper said flatly: “Peter Mandelson should never have been made ambassador in the first place.”
She also sought to anchor the wider controversy in what she described as the true core of the story. “I think none of us, in all of these discussions, should lose sight of the fact that right back at the very beginning of this story, what this was about was Epstein’s abuse of young women and girls,” she said.
Police continue to investigate Lord Mandelson on suspicion of misconduct in public office, following allegations that he passed confidential information to Epstein during his time as a Cabinet Minister. Mandelson denies any wrongdoing.
