Not fit to wear the robes

PRIME Minister Keir Starmer is calling for urgent rule changes so disgraced Peter Mandelson can be kicked out of the Lords.

- BY SOPHIE HUSKISSON

It came as a police said they were looking into reports of alleged misconduct in a public office after Lord Mandelson was accused of leaking sensitive information to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Officers will review the reports to “determine if they meet the criminal threshold for investigation.”

Cabinet Secretary Sir Chris Wormald will review documents which apparently show Lord Mandelson, then a cabinet minister in Gordon Brown's government, passing information to Epstein.

Lord Mandelson resigned from the Labour Party on Sunday to avoid causing it “further embarrassment” after appearing in the latest release of the Epstein files.

The Prime Minister does not currently have the power to remove his peerage but his stance piles pressure on Mandelson - who was sacked as US ambassador last year to resign from the House of Lords.

Epstein files released by the US government seem to show that in June 2009, in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the then Business Secretary Mandelson leaked a sensitive document proposing £20billion of asset sales as well as Labour's tax plans.