Mandelson resigns from Oxford college and quits public life
He memorably – and emotionally – declared himself ‘a fighter not a quitter’ when re-elected to Parliament just months after being forced to resign from the Labour government for a second time.
And there was more than a trace of the same defiance when, in September, he was sacked as British ambassador to the US, after the extent of his own very ‘special relationship’ with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein became public.
‘I have no alternative to accepting the Prime Minister’s decision,’ said Peter Mandelson, pictured right.
But yesterday, I can reveal, Lord Mandelson, the most controversial figure in British politics for the past three decades – and quite possibly the most reviled – threw in the towel.
The announcement did not come from Mandy himself but from his old Oxford college, St Catherine’s, which I contacted yesterday morning to ask why Mandelson’s name had been erased from the list of honorary fellows on its website.
All the others – a roll call which includes theatre impresario Sir Cameron Mackintosh and ‘croak-voiced Dalek’ Lord [John] Birt, former director-general of the BBC – remain in place.
Lord Mandelson has resigned from Oxford College, St Catherine’s, as an honorary fellow
Yesterday afternoon, St Catherine’s – known at the university as St Catz or simply Catz – issued the following statement: ‘Lord Mandelson informed St Catherine’s College that he has decided to step back from public life. The college has accepted his resignation as an honorary fellow.’
Mandelson’s decision to accept that, this time, he is ‘a quitter’ brackets him even more snugly with Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, who, like Mandy, is now irrevocably defined by his relationship with Epstein, who was found dead in a New York prison cell in 2019.
The evidence suggests that Mandy’s rapport with Epstein equalled that enjoyed by Andrew. In a birthday tribute book put together by child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell to celebrate Epstein’s 50th in 2003, Mandy assured the financier that he was ‘my best pal’.
Three years later, when Epstein faced prosecution for soliciting a minor, Mandy emailed: ‘Your friends stay with you and love you.’
And, after Epstein was sentenced to a short stretch in prison, Mandy advised him: ‘Fight for early release.’
After Epstein – who referred to Mandelson as ‘Petie’ – had been released, the two men remained in contact, though there is, currently, no evidence that Mandelson again stayed with him at his seven-storey, £57 million Manhattan town house, as he had previously, or again flew on Epstein’s private jet, a 727, as he had before the financier’s imprisonment. The plane, in which Bill Clinton and Kevin Spacey flew to Africa for a jaunt in 2002, was known as the ‘Lolita Express’.
Exactly how Mandelson himself will be known in future remains a matter for conjecture. But there is relief among his fellow Catz alumni that some justice is being done.
‘I was always uncomfortable that someone who’d twice had to resign from the Cabinet was made an honorary fellow,’ reflects one. ‘I’m very glad the college has done the right thing at last.’
Perhaps others will now decide that Mandy should, like the former Duke of York, also forfeit his peerage.
KEEP IT TO YOURSELF BUT…
A high-spirited aristocratic couple recently lost the services of their butler who tired of the foul state they left their house in whenever they took cocaine with similarly addicted friends, including at their son’s christening. They exacted revenge by blackening the poor man’s name when a prospective employer asked them for a character reference for him.
Game Of Thrones Emilia reveals crush on Stormzy
Emilia Clarke has the hots for Stormzy – and often listens to his music while preparing to go out for the night
Emilia Clarke, who fearlessly stripped off and walked through fire as Daenerys Targaryen in sex-and-dragons drama Game Of Thrones, has the hots for Stormzy.
The Queen of Dragons tells me she listens to the rapper’s music while preparing to go out for the night.
At the Global Gift Gala at Kimpton Fitzroy London hotel, Emilia, 39, was informed Stormzy, 32, pictured below, was currently single. Turning to her mother Jenny, the actress asked, ‘I mean, mother, may I?’
The pair attended the gala to help raise money for their brain injury support charity, SameYou.
Quote of the week
‘I admire rude women who don’t care what people think,’ Oscar-winner Dame Emma Thompson, 66, says. ‘I’ve been told I can be rude but I would prefer to be ruder’
Might this be enough to tempt Barbra Streisand, 83, back to Britain? Eleven years after the songstress jetted in from Malibu for a week at Champneys, I can disclose that the health farm chain has snapped up the magnificent Buxton Crescent Hotel in Derbyshire. Its spa includes the town’s Victorian baths – fully refurbished, of course. Let’s hope that they’re to Babs’s taste. For her 2014 trip to Champneys Hertfordshire branch, she stuck to LA time, taking breakfast at 4pm, lunch at 9pm, and dinner in her suite at 2am. She also had a hand-made box installed on her balcony. Filled with freshly cut turf, it served as the loo for her dog Samantha. Funny Girl, indeed.
(Very) modern manners
Best-selling author Dawn O’Porter, whose husband is film star Chris O’Dowd, has made a surprising discovery since giving up alcohol six months ago.
‘I go out more,’ she says. ‘I used to get to about four o’clock before an event or a dinner and cancel it because I was so scared of the hangover the next day. Now I go to everything. I might leave a little bit earlier, but I still have a great time.’
The 46-year-old mother of two adds: ‘The really nice thing about not drinking is that I am not spending three days a week feeling really out of control of my body – needing to nap all day when I need to work, or just feeling like I can’t do my jeans up because I’m so bloated and eating such crap food.
‘I love waking up every morning and just feeling the same.’
Idris’ word is his bond
One of his companies, IE7 Ltd, amassed £13 million last year, as I disclosed last month, while another – his drinks business, Porte Noire – gives him every excuse to sample his own champagne whenever the mood takes him. But there’s no danger of Idris Elba, 53, regularly touted as the next James Bond, losing his sense of mission.
Three years after establishing his own charity, the Elba Hope Foundation, whose campaigns include Don’t Stop Your Future – aiming to tackle the root causes of knife crime – the Luther star is tooling the foundation up with financial muscle.
Its newly published annual report explains that, despite running up a £578,000 deficit at the end of the last financial year, the foundation can forge ahead, knowing that cash from IE7 Ltd is at its disposal, thereby ‘ensuring that all obligations are fully backed’.
Unlike her father, Princess Beatrice retains her royal title, but she was not given any first-class pampering when she flew solo on an Etihad flight from Abu Dhabi to Heathrow on Monday. ‘Beatrice sat in economy and didn’t get any special treatment,’ a fellow passenger tells me. ‘The only thing that singled her out was that when we landed she was met at the gate by someone in a high-vis vest who said, “Welcome home to London, Your Royal Highness”.’
Queen of Soho ponders poignant wedding day tribute to tragic mum
India Rose James is the granddaughter of late Soho porn baron and property owner Paul Raymond, known as the ‘King of Soho’
India was a nine-month-old baby when her mother Debbie died of a heroin overdose aged 36. She may wear her mother’s wedding dress on her big day
Soho heiress India Rose James was a nine-month-old baby when her mother Debbie died of a heroin overdose aged 36.
But Debbie may still be remembered at India Rose’s big day next year. ‘My sister is trying to convince me to wear our mum’s wedding dress at my wedding,’ says India Rose, 33, pictured left, who’s due to exchange vows with Mexican-American musician Daniel Vildosola, 39.
It would be a poignant choice by the bride, who could afford any designer dress she wanted. Last week, it was disclosed that India Rose and her half-sister, Fawn James, 39, had banked a combined £23 million from their West End property empire.
Soho Estates, which owns much of the area, paid out the sum in dividends to the granddaughters of late Soho porn baron and property owner Paul Raymond, known as the ‘King of Soho’. The half-sisters’ fortune is estimated to be more than £700 million.
India Rose’s fiance proposed earlier this year, on bended knee, inside a New York tattoo parlour, where he’d had ‘Will you marry me?’ inked on to a forearm.
Recalling the wedding of England rugby teammate Mike Tindall and Zara Phillips in 2011, James Haskell indiscreetly reveals he took part in a drinking contest with royal guests.
‘I was the life and soul of the party,’ Haskell now insists. ‘I took on a couple of members of the Royal Family in a vodka luge.’
For the uninitiated, a vodka luge is an ice sculpture with a hole drilled in the top into which the drink is poured. By the time the vodka comes out at the bottom, it’s nicely chilled. Haskell mischievously maintains: ‘I actually beat them, but Tinders is such a kiss-bottom he told them that I lost. Because it was good for the country, apparently.’
Strictly casualty Dani is back on her feet
Dani Dyer attended the first night of Elf The Musical at Aldwych Theatre in the West End
Strictly Come Dancing contestant Dani Dyer said she was ‘heartbroken’ after a fractured ankle forced her to pull out in September. But, on Thursday, the Love Island winner was back on the town with a spring in her step as she attended the first night of Elf The Musical, at Aldwych Theatre in the West End.
‘I was absolutely devastated [to withdraw],’ admits the 29-year-old daughter of Rivals star Danny Dyer.
Dani says she does not know if she would be allowed to compete in next year’s series of Strictly when it will have new presenters. ‘It’s the most iconic, amazing TV show,’ she tells me.
