Sawt Falasteen - UK police search properties in Mandelson probe

The searches came as Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces intense scrutiny over his decision to appoint Mandelson as the country's envoy to the United States despite his association with convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Earlier this week, London's Metropolitan Police confirmed it was investigating Mandelson, 72, over allegations of misconduct in a public office.

It came after newly released documents appeared to show him sharing confidential government information with Epstein when Mandelson was a UK government minister, including during the 2008 financial crisis.

On Friday, officers from the Met's specialist crime team were deployed at two addresses, one in the western English county of Wiltshire and another in London, according to Deputy Assistant Commissioner Hayley Sewart.

"The searches are related to an ongoing investigation into misconduct in public office offences, involving a 72-year-old man," she said.

"He has not been arrested and enquiries are ongoing."

Several people believed to be police officers arrived outside Mandelson's house in central London on Friday afternoon.

Mandelson, a pivotal figure for decades in British politics, stood down from parliament's unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords, earlier this week following the release of the latest batch of files.

He also faces being formally stripped of the title that allowed him to sit in parliament.

- PM under pressure -

Meanwhile Global Counsel, the lobbying firm Mandelson co-founded, announced in a statement Friday it had cut all ties with him, saying he no longer had a stake in or any influence over the business "in any capacity".

A day earlier, Starmer had apologised to Epstein's victims for appointing Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, but indicated he himself would not resign over the scandal.

Starmer fired the former UK minister and EU trade commissioner in September after Mandelson spending only seven months as ambassador in Washington, following an earlier release of Epstein documents.

The ex-envoy was one of numerous prominent figures again embarrassed by last week's latest revelations of ties to the late US financier, who died in jail in 2019 while facing charges of alleged sex trafficking. US officials ruled Epstein's death a suicide.

Email exchanges between Mandelson and Epstein showed an intimate friendship, financial dealings, private photos as well as evidence that Mandelson passed confidential and potentially market-sensitive information to Epstein nearly two decades ago.

Starmer reiterated on Thursday that Mandelson repeatedly lied to secure the post and that he had not previously known about the "depth and darkness" of his friendship with Epstein.

Starmer, in a letter to the parliamentary committee examining which documents could be released, asked them to treat the matter "with the urgency and transparency it deserves".

I.Saadi--SF-PST