Newslinks for Tuesday 3rd February 2026

Police look into Epstein ‘leaks from Mandelson’

“Peter Mandelson was on Monday night facing a police probe after being accused of leaking ‘market sensitive’ information to Jeffrey Epstein while in government. Scotland Yard is reviewing revelations that the architect of New Labour passed on highly sensitive advice given to then-prime minister Gordon Brown. The email, sent in 2009 at the height of the financial crisis, was on Monday branded a ‘betrayal’ and sparked furious calls for an investigation. The Metropolitan Police received referrals from both Reform UK and the SNP asking detectives to investigate the peer, who on Sunday quit the Labour Party to avoid causing ‘further embarrassment’. Another email, part of three million documents released on Friday by the US Department of Justice, saw Lord Mandelson give Epstein advance notice of a €500billion bailout of the Eurozone, potentially allowing the paedophile financier to cash in ahead of the deal being formally announced the following day. And Mandelson, who now faces calls to quit the Lords, also tipped off his friend the night before Mr Brown resigned from No 10.” – Daily Mail

• Kemi Badenoch issues huge demand of Starmer over Mandelson scandal – Daily Express
• Mandelson repeatedly leaked confidential documents to Epstein – Daily Telegraph
• ‘Where r u? I miss you’: how vivid new Epstein emails sealed Mandelson’s fate – The Guardian
• How Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein traded secrets for years – The Times
• Peter Mandelson: Epstein is like dog muck; the smell won’t go away – The Times

Comment:

• How much did Starmer really know about Mandelson? – Tom Harris, Daily Telegraph
• How much did the Epstein poison infect Britain? Starmer had better find out, and fast – Gaby Hinsliff, The Guardian
• Starmer, Blair and Brown all turned a blind eye to Mandelson’s flaws. They too are disgraced – Suzanne Moore, Daily Telegraph
• You never know, by this time next year, multi-millionaire Mandelson’s white Y-fronts may be concealed by an orange jumpsuit in a Supermax prison. And it couldn’t happen to a nicer man… – Richard Littlejohn, Daily Mail
• Peter Mandelson’s probe into shocking relationship with Epstein must not end in cover up…he must be finished for good – The Sun

> Today:

As more Labour scandal emerges – with Dan Norris and Tulip Siddiq

“The MP and former mayor Dan Norris has been arrested on suspicion of rape, sexual assault, voyeurism and upskirting, it is understood. Norris, 66, is currently serving as an independent MP after he was suspended by the Labour Party and had the whip in the House of Commons removed last year following his original arrest on suspicion of historical child sex offences. He was previously the mayor of the West of England. Avon and Somerset police began investigating a man in his sixties in December 2024. The man was arrested in April last year on suspicion of sexual offences against a girl, rape, child abduction and misconduct in a public office. He has now been further arrested on suspicion of rape against a second woman and sexual assault against a third woman, as well as voyeurism and upskirting against a number of women. The force said it was no longer actively investigating any sexual offences against children, but the original rape and misconduct in public office investigation continues. All of the offences are alleged to have occurred between the 2000s and 2020s… He beat Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former Conservative cabinet minister, to be elected MP for North East Somerset & Hanham in 2024.” – The Times

• MP Dan Norris arrested on suspicion of rape, sexual assault and upskirting – The Guardian
• Labour MP Tulip Siddiq receives further jail sentences in Bangladesh – The Times
• Tulip Siddiq sentenced to four more years in jail in Bangladesh – Daily Telegraph
• Mandelson resigns from Labour to prevent ‘further embarrassment’ over Epstein links – The Guardian

Comment:

• Starmer was the self-styled ‘Mr Rules’… but he now presides over most scandal-prone government in modern times – Jack Elsom, The Sun
• In Gorton and Denton, I found a long-festering sense of fury that Labour has no idea how to tackle – John Harris, The Guardian

Cameron: ‘Spiteful’ Labour killing schools

“Lord Cameron has accused Labour of taking a “spite-laden wrecking ball” to British education. In a rare intervention, the former prime minister claimed Sir Keir Starmer was “systematically dismantling” reforms by successive governments that had made English schools world-leading. The Tory peer also condemned Labour’s decision to scrap dozens of planned free schools in some of the country’s poorest regions, including one backed by Eton College, his alma mater. Writing for The Telegraph, he accused the Prime Minister of “curbing aspiration, curtailing excellence, levelling down and denying so many children the opportunities they deserve”. His comments mark the most high-profile assault on Labour’s education plans to date and come before its flagship school bill’s return to the House of Lords on Tuesday. The bill has received significant criticism for seeking to curtail academy freedoms. England’s academy system has been praised widely for boosting education standards over the past few decades. Lord Cameron said: “The Starmer government response to all this has been to take a spite-laden wrecking ball to the entire project.”” – Daily Telegraph

• London schools face cuts to staff and budgets as pupil numbers fall – The Guardian
• Councils snub alternative funding to press on with special schools – Schools Week
• School failed to probe ‘130 violent incidents’ which involved teen’s killer – Sky News

Comment:

• We must halt Labour’s damaging and nonsensical attack on our schools – David Cameron, Daily Telegraph

News in brief:

• Ethics? What ethics? On the decision to allow puberty blockers for children – Maya Forstater, The Critic
• Does Keir Starmer know how preposterous he sounds? – Madeline Grant, The Spectator
• Labour’s NHS waiting lists tell a convenient political story – Gabriel McKeown, UnHerd
• Why has no one in the Cabinet run a business? – Kiki McDonough, CityAM
• The Greens’ defence problem – George Eaton, The New Statesman