The government is facing renewed political pressure to disclose whether Jeffrey Epstein played any role in discussions surrounding the sale of a taxpayer-backed commodities business during Labour’s last period in office.
Senior Conservatives have tabled a series of parliamentary questions demanding clarity on the $1.7bn (£1.35bn) sale of parts of Royal Bank of Scotland’s Sempra joint venture to JP Morgan in 2010, when Lord Mandelson was business secretary.
The intervention follows disclosures contained in an internal JP Morgan report from 2019, which was later filed in a New York court. The document included emails in which Epstein claimed to have facilitated meetings between Mandelson and Jes Staley, then chief executive of JP Morgan’s investment banking arm, at a time when the bank was exploring the acquisition of RBS’s commodities assets.
The exchanges took place months after Epstein had been released from prison in the United States following a conviction for soliciting a minor, a fact that has intensified scrutiny of his continued access to senior political and financial figures.
In a written parliamentary question, Kevin Hollinrake, the Conservative Party chairman and former business minister, asked what records the Department for Business and Trade held relating to correspondence involving Mandelson, Epstein and the Sempra transaction. Responding on behalf of the department, business minister Kate Dearden said that “any such information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost”.
That response has been challenged by further answers to parliamentary questions tabled by Mike Wood, a shadow Cabinet Office minister, which confirmed that records from the period are held electronically and can be searched by keyword.
Commenting on the discrepancy, Hollinrake said the government needed to “come clean” about Mandelson’s role in the deal. “It is simply not credible to claim it is too costly to retrieve records when the government admits they are electronic and searchable,” he said, adding that the position “only fuels concerns that Labour ministers have something to hide”.
The Treasury, responding separately to questions on the matter, said it had carried out a “proportionate search” of its archives and found no evidence of correspondence or meetings between Epstein and Treasury ministers or officials in relation to the sale. It stressed that oversight of RBS following its bailout was a Treasury responsibility.
A source close to Mandelson dismissed the allegations, describing them as “nonsense” and insisting that there were no meetings involving Epstein and that the business department had no role in the transaction. “It was a Treasury matter and he had absolutely no involvement whatsoever,” the source said.
RBS, which was bailed out by the government during the 2008 financial crisis, was required to divest a number of assets under EU competition rules, including its stake in the Sempra commodities venture.
Mandelson was dismissed as UK ambassador to the United States by Sir Keir Starmer earlier this year following revelations about his association with Epstein. Meanwhile, Jes Staley was banned by the Financial Conduct Authority in July from holding senior roles in UK financial services due to his links to Epstein.
Epstein died in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on further charges of sex trafficking minors. Recent releases of documents by the US Department of Justice detailing his network of associates have reignited scrutiny of his relationships with politicians and financiers on both sides of the Atlantic.
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Tories press Labour over Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged role in RBS commodities sale