Can Starmer forcibly remove Mandelson’s peerage over the Epstein scandal?

Peter Mandelson has had his share of ups and downs in public life, but these latest gyrations are surely the most dramatic. Popping in and out of government is one thing. But vaulting from cabinet to private lobbyist to the palatial splendour of the Washington embassy and then back down to the status of political pariah has few parallels anywhere. Each tranche of documents from the Epstein files brings fresh embarrassment. Photographed in skimpy underpants, he has been stripped of his dignity – and now even a Labour prime minister wants him stripped of his peerage.

Sir Keir Starmer has said Lord Mandelson should not be a member of the House of Lords or use his title. He is calling on those in the Lords to work with the government to modernise the disciplinary procedures to allow the easier removal of peers.

His official spokesman said: “The prime minister believes that Peter Mandelson should not be a member of the House of Lords or use the title. However, the prime minister does not have the power to remove it.”

He had already spent a period of time on a “leave of absence” from the House of Lords because his full-time diplomatic role as UK ambassador to the US – from which he resigned last September – meant he could not attend.

If he wanted to voluntarily resign from the House of Lords, he could do so thanks to the 2014 House of Lords Reform Act. He would relinquish his peerage in its constitutional role, but like many other peers – hereditary, or appointed only for their own lifespan – he could still use his title.

If the government or his fellow peers want to deprive him of his peerage, that would be much more difficult.

He can, but it would require a special act of parliament. This deprivation of a title has only been done before in the case of four German aristocrats during the First World War, under the 1917 Titles Deprivation Act. Given that Mandelson has not (yet) “borne arms against His Majesty or His Allies, or… adhered to His Majesty’s enemies,” Mandelson’s in the clear on this one.

Even if he did lose his title, he could still use “the Right Honourable Peter Mandelson” unless the King chose to dismiss him from the privy council on the advice of his ministers. That hasn’t happened to anyone since 2011.

Yes, if he’d broken the law, or the House of Lords code of conduct, and other peers voted to boot him out. But, he would still be able to call himself Lord Mandelson.

Even attempts at such exclusions are extremely rare: Nazir Ahmed and John Sewel both quit before they could be thrown out, and they retain their titles – even though Ahmed was in jail for serious sexual offences. Other peers have been removed automatically for lack of attendance.

The SNP has in the past tabled an early day motion in the House of Commons calling on the government “to take legislative steps to remove his peerage” – a symbolic move. It seems Downing Street might finally be on the same page, albeit with the difference that No 10 seems to want a permanent change to the system.

Of course, Mandelson’s informal title of Prince of Darkness is active in perpetuity.