The Mandelson scandal must lead to a review of whether the new misconduct in public office offence in the Hillsborough Bill is robust enough, and urgent measures to ensure greater political integrity in public office and accountability for politicians.
It is highly welcome that the Metropolitan police has swiftly opened an investigation into potential ‘misconduct in public office’ by Peter Mandelson in his relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
If the Met successfully brings a prosecution, it will be the first time the UK’s outdated misconduct laws will be used by law enforcement against a senior politician. Our research shows that 98% of those convicted of misconduct to date have been junior to mid level officials and 92% prison and police staff. Just four individuals who have held a senior position have been successfully prosecuted to date – none of them politicians.
Given the outdated law, there is no guarantee that the route to a criminal prosecution will be easy. Mandelson is likely, according to media reports, to contest that he received any direct personal benefit, and to maintain that he acted in the interests of national security as business secretary during a crisis. Proving that Epstein received a specific benefit from Mandelson’s information may also be challenging. With good lawyers on his side, this case could take several years to resolve and may become a key test case of the law.
What is the potential misconduct behind the Mandelson allegations
Analysis by Tax Policy Associates shows that the allegations against Mandelson include:
- An ongoing financial relationship between Epstein and Mandelson, with Epstein providing Mandelson’s then partner funding to pursue an osteopathy course on top of an earlier payment directly to Mandelson
- Direct help from Epstein for Mandelson to pursue highly remunerated job opportunities after leaving office
- Highly sensitive commercial government information provided to Epstein by Mandelson that could have resulted in commercial benefits to the financier.
Further reports by the Financial Times reveal Mandelson directly lobbied the US government using speaking points from Epstein to water down banking reforms being introduced after the 2008 financial crash – a crash caused by serious misconduct within the banking industry.
Why these allegations matter
This is rightly being called one of the biggest political scandals in decades.
These allegations risk confirming widespread public mistrust in politicians, and particularly that they are largely intent on feathering their own nest, and more interested in cosying up to influential business leaders than protecting the public interest.
The appointment of Mandelson as US ambassador in 2024 raises serious questions about whether the current government ignored not just Mandelson’s relationship with a convicted paedophile, but also, as Democracy for Sale has shown, significant potential conflicts of interest around Mandelson’s ongoing business interests.
What needs to happen now
The Mandelson affair must lead to serious reflection on how to prevent these scandals happening again. While the company that politicians keep is hard to regulate, how they interact with business figures while in government should not be.
So far, the government’s promise to restore trust in public life has been lacklustre, and its proposals for political integrity reforms have been tepid at best.
The new misconduct offence in the Hillsborough Law for instance contains serious flaws which risk making a prosecution against a case like Mandelson’s just as difficult as the current law. For instance, unlike the Bribery Act, the current Bill will require prosecutors to prove that some benefit was actually obtained or given by a public official – something that is likely to be the hurdle in any current police investigation into Mandelson.
And those being investigated are given an absurdly wide defence of having a ‘reasonable excuse’. The Law Commission recommended that the defence should be limited to whether a defendant can prove that the “conduct was in all the circumstances in the public interest” – a much higher bar to meet.
Tackling these flaws should be an urgent priority as the Bill progresses through Parliament. Labour MPs have previously lobbied Ministers on tightening the Bill, including on greater alignment with the Bribery Act, but concerns around the coverage of the security services by the duty of candour appear to have drawn more of the government’s attention.
As the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Anti-Corruption and Responsible Tax and former anti-bribery and corruption professional Phil Brickell MP put to minister Alex Davies Jones during the Bill’s second reading: “Seeking to be corrupt is not better than successfully being corrupt.”
Meanwhile, long overdue and crucial political integrity reforms are also desperately needed. The Anti-Corruption Strategy published before Christmas disappointingly contained no new meaningful commitments to tackle major gaps in how the UK regulates political integrity, including on lobbying transparency.
This came on the back of the launch of the government’s new Ethics and Integrity Commission which is largely a rebrand of an existing regulator with no new powers, statutory protections, or budget and falls far short of what the government promised in opposition. The Hillsborough Bill would be a major opportunity to put the body – which could currently be abolished in a day – on a statutory footing.
Another depressing deja vu?
After the last major political scandal involving a very senior politician and a disgraced financier (albeit not a convicted child sex offender) – when David Cameron was found to have used personal contacts to lobby his political mates on behalf of Lex Greensill for large sums of money – various independent reviews called for radical overhauls of lobbying transparency, the regulation of the revolving door and tackling conflicts of interest.
To this day many of these recommendations remain unimplemented or only very partially implemented. If the government is serious about preventing these kinds of scandals from derailing the everyday business of governing, it must stop pretending these are second order priorities that can wait for another day.
Public trust is ultimately founded on trust in politicians and the government must look long and hard at how it is going to win it back.
© House of Commons
