Sarah SandersonPolitical Reporter, Hull
BBCCouncillors will decide later on whether Lord Mandelson should be removed as high steward of Hull, following his sacking as UK ambassador to the US.
The Labour peer was appointed to the ceremonial role in 2013 to promote the city and attract investment.
But key figures at Hull City Council have called for him to be stripped of the post after he was sacked as ambassador by the prime minister over his connections to the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019.
Documents emerged last week showing Lord Mandelson sent supportive messages to Epstein as he faced charges for sex offences in 2008. The former cabinet minister said he deeply regretted the friendship.
The position of high steward dates back to 1853 but was abolished in 1974 following the creation of the county of Humberside.
In 2012, former Labour councillor Steven Bayes proposed reinstating the role and the idea was approved by the council.
Lord Mandelson – whose grandfather Herbert Morrison had also been high steward – was approached for the position.
The appointment was made official in a ceremony at Hull’s Guildhall in May 2013, when Lord Mandelson vowed to serve the city to his “best judgement and ability”.
Over a decade later, party leaders from across the political divide in Hull, including council leader Mike Ross and Labour opposition leader Daren Hale, now want to see him removed.
Peter Mandelson rose to prominence as a key architect of New Labour, alongside Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. His reputation as a spin doctor earned him the nickname, “the Prince of Darkness”.
He became MP for Hartlepool in 1992 and entered the government following Labour’s landslide election victory in 1997, later serving as business secretary, trade secretary and Northern Ireland secretary.
But he was forced to resign from the government twice, first in 1998 over a secret loan, and then again in 2001 after denying he had used his position to influence a passport application. An inquiry cleared him of wrongdoing.
Ross, who heads the ruling Liberal Democrat group in Hull, said the revelations about Lord Mandelson’s connections with Epstein were “beyond the pale”.
“If he’s not able to represent the nation as the nation’s ambassador to the US then really I don’t see how he’s fit to represent the city [Hull] in this role either,” he said.
Lord Mandelson has said he “very deeply” regretted the friendship with Epstein, which he had continued “for far longer than I should have done”.
He said he never saw wrongdoing while with Epstein and he “never sought, nor did [Epstein] offer, introductions to women in the way that he did to others”, adding: “Perhaps it is because I am a gay man.”
The position of high steward of Hull may only be held by a Lord, who is expected to act as a highly placed lobbyist but, according to the city council, there is no obligation for this role to be filled.
The BBC has also been told by the council that any formal changes to the office of high steward – the position itself, not the individuals appointed – would have to be in consultation with the Crown.