Russian oligarch flew Peter Mandelson to summit with Putin

Peter Mandelson took ‘ghost flights’ on a Russian oligarch’s private jet to a summit with Vladimir Putin when he was EU trade commissioner, the Daily Mail reveals today.

The now-disgraced peer accepted luxury flights aboard a Gulfstream jet controlled by one of the Kremlin strongman’s favourite tycoons – aluminium billionaire Oleg Deripaska.

The EU subsequently slashed aluminium tariffs – to the delight of Mr Deripaska, who became one of the world’s ten richest men. 

A Daily Mail investigation has unearthed extraordinary details of the private jet flights an ‘agitated’ Mandelson took on November 25, 2004, to a crucial trade summit in The Hague.

Last night Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch demanded the ‘disturbing new revelations’ be investigated, while shadow minister Alicia Kearns said Mandelson ‘stinks of a man who holds the British people in complete contempt’.

Mandelson’s woes intensified last night as Democrats demanded the New Labour architect testify as part of the US Congress probe into his long-term friend, paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

They sent him a letter formally requesting that he appear for an interview to help them ‘uncover the identities of Mr Epstein’s co-conspirators and enablers’.

They pointed out that Mandelson had called Epstein his ‘best pal’ and, according to bank statements, received payments of at least $75,000 (£55,000) from him. As the Epstein fallout continued, it emerged:

• Keir Starmer offered a friend of Mandelson’s a peerage despite the fact he visited Epstein while the paedophile was on house arrest;
• Sir Keir and eight Labour ministers campaigned for a London councillor later caught in a police paedophile sting;
• Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor passed a confidential Treasury briefing to a banker friend, according to emails.

The Mail’s investigation caps a torrid fortnight for Britain’s former ambassador to the United States.

A parade of high-powered lawyers have been seen visiting his £12million London townhouse in the days since Scotland Yard launched an investigation into allegations of misconduct in public office.

The most recent Epstein Files – more than three million pages published by the US authorities – suggest Labour’s ‘Prince of Darkness’ had passed confidential British government information to financier Epstein.

Now the Mail can reveal shocking details showing that when he was the EU trade commissioner, Mandelson took two freebie flights on Deripaska’s Gulfstream IV executive jet to get to a trade summit where he met Putin. 

The EU has confirmed he did not declare the flights, as he should have done. They were from Brussels to Luton, and then Luton to Rotterdam. 

The Mail has spoken to a member of the flight crew who said Mandelson was ‘quite ratty’ because he wanted to get there faster.

Around that time, Mandelson enjoyed cosy relations with some of Putin’s inner circle. 

In 2005, he had a private, unofficial and undeclared dinner with the Russian finance minister, arranged by Deripaska, and flew 2,000 miles to Siberia where he stayed at the aluminium oligarch’s dacha before being flogged in a traditional Russian ‘banya’ or sauna.

Mrs Badenoch said: ‘As Keir Starmer flies to the Munich Security Conference to lecture us about the Russian threat, these disturbing new revelations reinforce the recklessness of his decision to hand Britain’s most vital security relationship to Peter Mandelson, a man now facing serious questions over his dealings with Kremlin-linked oligarchs. 

'The intelligence and security committee must be provided with all relevant material relating to Mandelson’s time as EU trade commissioner.’

Ms Kearns, shadow home affairs minister, said: ‘Funny how after a few flights on an aluminium magnate’s private jet, suddenly tariffs melt faster than scrap in a smelter. First Epstein, then the Chinese Communist Party, now Putin – Mandelson’s black book knows no limits.

‘Mandelson stinks of a man who holds the British people in complete contempt. 

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EXCLUSIVE
Peter Mandelson's 'ghost flights' on Russian oligarch's jet revealed: RICHARD PENDLEBURY

'He thought he’d got away with giving out confidential government information to his friends, he thought he’d got away with simpering to a paedophile, and he thought he’d get away with betraying the EU to Putin’s pet oligarch until the Mail’s revelations today.

‘There’s a movie yet to be made of all of this: Licence To Shill.’

Former prime minister Gordon Brown has said Mandelson’s email contacts with Epstein could constitute a ‘crime’.

When the Mail put the latest revelations to Mandelson, he said he could ‘not recall’ travel arrangements from so long ago but they would have ‘been made by his office at the Commission’.