Peter Mandelson should hand over his five-figure payout to a charity that supports victims, a senior Labour minister has told GB News.
The former UK ambassador to the US received a £75,000 taxpayer-funded payout after initially demanding £550,000.
The eyewatering severance payment was revealed in the first batch of documents on Lord Mandelson.
The 147-page dossier, which was released shortly before Darren Jones updated MPs on the vetting process yesterday, also noted Lord Mandelson posed a “general reputational risk”.
However, Lord Mandelson’s payout figure, which was described as “good value for money” by Foreign Office boss Sir Oliver Robbins, fell well short of his original “inappropriate and unacceptable” demand.
Speaking on GB News, Paymaster General Nick Thomas-Symonds said the New Labour architect should donate his sum to a charity that offers support to victims.
He said: “I share the moral outrage that I’m sure the outrage that all your viewers will have felt when they learnt about that.
“Now, on a numbers basis, of course, you can see why the decision was being made. Peter Mandelson was claiming £547,000. It’s been negotiated down to £75,000.
Nick Thomas-Symonds joined GB News this morning
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GB NEWS
“There was a threat of an employment tribunal where, unfortunately, with employment tribunals, generally speaking, in ordinary circumstances, even if you win, you can’t get your legal costs back.
“So you can understand on a purely money decision why it was made.”
However, he added he “morally absolutely agrees” that Peter Mandelson “shouldn’t have the money”.
He continued: “He should, frankly, give that money away, possibly to a charity that supports victims. That be the honourable and decent thing to do.”
LATEST ON THE PETER MANDELSON SCANDAL:
The first batch of Peter Mandelson’s vetting documents was released on Wednesday
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PA
The bombshell document further clarified Sir Keir Starmer was aware of Lord Mandelson’s “close ties” with Epstein and the peer’s potential appointment posed a “reputational risk”.
Nevertheless, Mr Thomas-Symonds claimed Sir Keir was “absolutely fit to run the country”, citing his judgement on the Iran war.
He continued: “The Prime Minister has accepted responsibility for believing what he was told by Peter Mandelson.
“And most importantly, the Prime Minister has apologised to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, who every time this matter is discussed, they are traumatised by having to recall their terrible experiences.”
Earlier on the People’s Channel, ex-Tory adviser Charlie Rowley took aim at Labour for even handing him such a large sum at all.
“If you’re sacked, it’s not as if it hasn’t worked out. ‘I’m terribly sorry. And we’ll tie you over because of a terrible misfortune’. Um, you’re asked to leave because you clearly can’t do your job properly,” he blasted.
He added: “This is surmountable to the whole problem with this No10 and the Government, the idea that you’ve got officials sitting around a table saying, ‘well, we must pay him something, we must have a payout because he might take us to court as a tribunal’.
“The guy has been sacked for an association with a convicted paedophile, where he could not do the job that he should never have had in the first place.”