Updated 18 minutes ago

Met Police reviewing misconduct allegations after files suggest Mandelson sent government information to Epstein

In his statement today, former Prime Minister Gordon Brown declared his shock at the latest revelations that Mandelson, while he was business secretary, apparently passed Epstein sensitive and potentially advantageous government information.

Brown has called for a wide-ranging, intensive Whitehall inquiry into the disclosure of government documents – and for its findings to be made public.

His statement isn’t entirely helpful for the current prime minister, who has been under pressure from opposition politicians to order an inquiry in to how Lord Mandelson was appointed as US ambassador in the first place.

In an attempt to get on the front foot today, the prime minister said there would be an urgent investigation into Lord Mandelson’s links with Epstein while he was a minister in the last Labour government.

But it now transpires that Brown had asked the cabinet secretary to undertake a similar exercise as long ago as last September – although it unearthed nothing.

That may solidify further the criticism from the opposition – and from some inside the Labour Party – that Starmer has been too slow to act.

When Mandelson was turfed out of Washington last September, Downing Street said that was because the “extent and depth” of his relationship with Epstein hadn’t been previously known.

While new depths now appear to have been plumbed, the question of why some more wasn’t known or discovered before his appointment will not go away.