“I have been further linked this weekend to the understandable furore surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and I feel regretful and sorry about this,” Mandelson wrote in the letter to general secretary Hollie Ridley on Sunday.

Mandelson, the longtime senior government official and life peer in the House of Lords, appears several times in the Epstein files. As part of the latest batch of Epstein files released by the DOJ on Friday, new alleged payments between Mandelson and the disgraced financier were revealed, showing Epstein sending $75,000 to Mandelson in $25,000 installments while he was a Labour Party member of parliament in 2004.

“Allegations which I believe to be false that he made financial payments to me twenty years ago, and of which I have no record or recollection, need investigating by me,” Mandelson wrote. “While doing this I do not wish to cause further embarrassment to the Labour Party and I am therefore stepping down from membership of the party.”

“I want to take this opportunity to repeat my apology to the women and girls whose voices should have been heard long before now. I have dedicated my life to the values and success of the Labour Party and in taking my decision I believe I am acting in its best interests,” Mandelson continued.

LATEST EPSTEIN TROVE FEATURES MUSK, LUTNICK, AND STEVE TISCH CORRESPONDENCE

Starmer is also putting pressure on Mandelson to give up his peerage in the House of Lords. Starmer “does not have the power to remove” Mandelson’s House of Lords membership or title himself, a spokesperson for the PM said in a statement.

“The prime minister has asked for this to be urgently looked at. The prime minister believes that Peter Mandelson should not be a member of the House of Lords or use the title,” Starmer’s spokesman said.