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Peter Mandelson says he’s stepping right down to keep away from inflicting additional embarrassment to governing celebration.

Peter Mandelson, the UK’s former ambassador to the USA, has resigned from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour Occasion following additional revelations of his hyperlinks to the late intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein, UK media have reported.

Mandelson, who was eliminated as London’s high consultant in Washington final yr after the emergence of emails detailing his associations with Epstein, mentioned he had resigned to keep away from inflicting additional embarrassment to the governing celebration, the experiences mentioned on Sunday.

“I’ve been additional linked this weekend to the comprehensible furore surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and I really feel regretful and sorry about this,” Mandelson mentioned in a letter reported by the BBC and The Guardian.

Mandelson mentioned he believed that experiences over the weekend that he had acquired a number of funds from Epstein within the early 2000s had been false, however that he wanted to analyze them, the experiences mentioned.

Mandelson earlier instructed the BBC he had no recollection of the funds and didn’t know whether or not the paperwork had been real. He additionally reiterated his remorse for “ever having identified” Epstein.

“Whereas doing this I don’t want to trigger additional embarrassment to the Labour Occasion and I’m subsequently stepping down from membership of the celebration,” Mandelson mentioned in his letter, in accordance with the experiences.

“I wish to take this chance to repeat my apology to the ladies and ladies whose voices ought to have been heard lengthy prior to now. I’ve devoted my life to the values and success of the Labour celebration and in taking my determination, I consider I’m appearing in its greatest pursuits.”

Mandelson’s resignation comes after the Monetary Occasions and the BBC reported on paperwork that seem to point out that he and his associate acquired funds totalling $75,000 from Epstein in 2003 and 2004.

The paperwork had been contained in investigative information on Epstein launched by the US Division of Justice (DOJ) on Friday.

The newest tranche of paperwork additionally accommodates a picture of Mandelson in his underwear standing subsequent to a girl, whose face was obscured by US authorities.

Mandelson instructed the BBC that he “can’t place the situation or the lady and I can’t suppose what the circumstances had been”.

Emails launched by the DOJ additionally seem to point out that Mandelson instructed Epstein in 2009 that he was “attempting laborious” to water down a tax on financial institution bonuses introduced by the federal government, during which he was serving as enterprise secretary.

Mandelson instructed Epstein that JPMorgan chief govt Jamie Dimon ought to “mildly threaten” the UK’s chancellor over the tax, in accordance with the emails, which had been reported by the Telegraph and the Monetary Occasions.

Quite a few high-profile figures in politics, enterprise, and leisure have appeared within the Epstein information, and being included within the paperwork doesn’t point out wrongdoing.