Could Peter Mandelson be charged with treason over Epstein leaks?

Peter Mandelson stands accused of leaking confidential government information to a foreign third party, Jeffrey Epstein, with potentially serious implications for the interests of the UK.

The release of documents from the Epstein files has uncovered a number of problematic emails sent to and from Mandelson. He says he has no record or recollection of some of them, and queried whether they are genuine. He denies all suggestions of wrongdoing in any case.

Some people, including his former colleagues in this and previous Labour governments, plainly regard his actions as a betrayal, and treacherous in the colloquial sense, but that doesn’t necessarily make them illegal.

No. All the legislation on this matter, from the 1351 Treason Act onwards, is mainly concerned with attacks on the royal family or state officials, and the conduct of war.

The last person to be found guilty of the offence, under the Treason Act 1852, was Jaswant Singh Chail, in 2023, for attempting to kill Queen Elizabeth II with a crossbow at Windsor Castle in 2021. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years in prison with an additional five years on extended licence. The last person to be found guilty and hanged was William Joyce, “Lord Haw Haw”, in 1946. Another person was executed in 1946 under the Treachery Act 1940.

Nothing that Mandelson might have done would qualify for prosecution under these types of law, and fortunately the death penalty was abolished completely under the Human Rights Act 1998.

The most commonly discussed possibilities are misconduct in public office – an offence under common law that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment – and unlawful disclosure of insider information, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years in respect of crimes committed before November 2021. The Official Secrets Act probably doesn’t apply as it relates to security and defence.

The obvious concern is that there are a huge number of politicians and officials who leak, gossip and mislead. If Mandelson is culpable, many more must surely be.

They are reviewing the information, and the Cabinet Office has referred material to them.

“If it hadn’t been for the emails, I’d still be in Washington. Emails sent all those years ago didn’t change the relationship that I had with this monster. I feel the same about the recent download of Epstein files, none of which indicate wrongdoing or misdemeanour on my part.”

If it ever comes to it, the Crown Prosecution Service will decide if taking action would be in the public interest – a controversial decision either way.