The Governor of the Financial institution of England has mentioned he was “shocked” by revelations that Lord Mandelson leaked delicate authorities data to Jeffrey Epstein through the 2008 monetary disaster, saying it was proper that the matter is now being investigated by the police.
Andrew Bailey made the feedback as he paid tribute to the late former chancellor Alistair Darling, drawing a pointy distinction between Darling’s conduct through the disaster and the alleged actions of the previous enterprise secretary.
Requested whether or not enough safeguards exist to stop these in positions of energy from misusing market-sensitive data, Bailey mentioned there was a “very clear” authorized framework for coping with potential breaches and that it was applicable for the Mandelson allegations to be dealt with by legislation enforcement.
He additionally pressured that the main target ought to stay on Epstein’s victims, asking: “How is it that we dwell in a society that this occurred and was allowed to occur?”
Bailey appeared visibly emotional as he mirrored on photographs exhibiting Mandelson alongside Darling through the disaster interval. He described Darling as somebody who acted with “honesty and decency” whereas serving to to steer the UK by means of one of the crucial extreme monetary shocks in fashionable historical past.
“Alistair Darling was doing all the appropriate issues,” Bailey mentioned. “He was doing them with an intensive sense of integrity, and he can’t converse for himself as we speak, sadly.”
Darling died in November 2023 aged 70.
The feedback comply with stories that Mandelson stored Epstein knowledgeable concerning the Labour authorities’s choice to cap bankers’ bonuses within the aftermath of the monetary crash and that he had sought to influence the Treasury to desert the coverage. The disclosures have triggered a police investigation.
Bailey mentioned he was “shocked by what we heard about that interval”, reiterating that the precedence should be the hurt suffered by Epstein’s victims relatively than the reputations of these implicated.
The Financial institution of England governor has beforehand been drawn into scrutiny surrounding Epstein on account of his position as head of the Monetary Conduct Authority when the regulator investigated Jes Staley, the previous Barclays chief government, over his relationship with the disgraced financier.
Staley unsuccessfully challenged the FCA’s choice to ban him from senior monetary companies roles, with the courtroom upholding the regulator’s discovering that he had acted with a scarcity of integrity by deceptive it concerning the nature of his hyperlinks to Epstein. Whereas the ban was maintained, the courtroom decreased a monetary penalty imposed on Staley.
That case centred on a cache of emails between Staley and Epstein, a few of which later grew to become public and added to wider issues about accountability and conduct on the highest ranges of finance and authorities.
