MPs are pressing for a parliamentary inquiry into Lord Mandelson’s involvement in securing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s position as UK trade envoy.
The cross-party business and trade select committee is scheduled to convene on Tuesday to determine whether to launch a formal investigation into the matter.
Liam Byrne MP, who chairs the committee, stated he was treating the matter “acutely seriously” and that Parliamentarians “are not in the market for letting anything slip through the cracks”.
The all-party committee possesses the authority to compel Peter Mandelson, Sir Tony Blair and other key figures to provide testimony regarding how Andrew secured the appointment in 2001.
The King had warned his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, at the time to block Andrew’s appointment, citing his brother’s unsuitability for the post.
However, these concerns were brushed aside as Mr Mandelson backed Andrew, with whom he had established a friendship, to assume the plum role.
Despite widespread doubts about Andrew’s character and fitness for the position, the New Labour architect declared him “well-suited” to represent British trade interests abroad.
Mr Mandelson and Andrew were well acquainted long before the trade envoy role emerged as a possibility in 2000.
MPs set to investigate Lord Mandelson over role in appointing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor as trade envoy
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Both men moved in circles connected to Ghislaine Maxwell, the girlfriend and later convicted accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, and Andrew had already hosted Epstein at Sandringham.
Mr Mandelson’s connection to Maxwell stretched back years through his consultancy work for her late news baron father, Robert Maxwell.
The pair had also collaborated on a prominent NSPCC campaign.
Their social networks overlapped further through financier Evelyn de Rothschild and his wife, Lynn, whose 2000 wedding both men attended.
The New Labour architect declared Andrew was ‘well-suited’ to represent British economic interests abroad
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Andrew was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office and subsequently released while investigations continue.
Mr Mandelson’s properties in London and Wiltshire were searched by police earlier this month as part of a separate misconduct in public office inquiry, though he has not been arrested.
According to a source familiar with the discussions at the time, the then-Prince of Wales said that Andrew’s “head would be turned by rich people” as trade envoy.
Charles warned that his brother “couldn’t help himself” when faced with temptation.
The King had warned his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, at the time to block Andrew’s appointment, citing his brother’s unsuitability for the post
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He believed inadequate safeguards existed around Andrew to manage him in such a position and predicted the arrangement would inevitably fail.
However, the future King’s strained relationship with Buckingham Palace at the time meant his objections carried little weight, per The Telegraph.
Richard Tice, Reform UK’s business, trade and energy spokesman, demanded urgent scrutiny of the appointment. He noted that Andrew’s connections to Epstein were evident at the time and that he remained in post even after Epstein’s conviction for soliciting prostitution from minors.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who led the Opposition when Andrew became trade envoy, insisted the committee must establish whether Mandelson was involved and the extent of Sir Tony Blair’s knowledge, arguing “none of this would have happened if Andrew hadn’t been appointed in the first place”.