• King Charles’ brother Andrew shunted out of royal residence as police probe claims another woman was sent to royal estate by known convicted child sex trafficker
• Peter Mandelson also faces Met Police inquiry; under-fire PM Starmer agrees to release record linked to his appointment
WASHINGTON / LONDON / OSLO: The fallout from the revelations contained in the Epstein Files continued to cause upheaval in Europe, with notable British and Norwegian figures — including royals and top government officials — facing intense scrutiny for a variety of wrongdoings.
King Charles’ brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has left the Royal Lodge mansion, his home of two decades, after Thames Valley Police said they were assessing allegations that a second woman was sent to the UK by convicted sex trafficker and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, for a sexual encounter with the former royal.
In 2014, the late Virginia Giuffre became the first woman to publicly accuse the embattled ex-royal of similar encounters. Giuffre filed a civil lawsuit in the US against him in 2021, settling the case in February 2022 for an estimated £12m. She took her own life last year.
The anti-monarchist campaign group Republic said it had reported Andrew to the police over allegations that “he was involved in the trafficking of a woman to the UK for sex”.
The documents released on Friday included photos of him kneeling on all fours over a woman lying on the ground, while other files repeatedly reference him. “The sight of him plastered on the front pages out riding his horse or driving in his car… amid the continued dripping poison of the Epstein files was just too much,” a royal source told the Daily Mail. “He had to be removed from the public eye,” the source added.
Andrew is said now to be living at Wood Farm, the former residence of his late father Prince Philip on the king’s private estate in Sandringham, eastern England.
Meanwhile, UK PM Keir Starmer is reeling under pressure from within his own party after it emerged that Peter Mandelson, who served in the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown cabinets and recently ended a posting as UK’s envoy to Washington, not only remained in close contact with Epstein, but also leaked sensitive information to him.
Mandelson quit the House of Lords after Metropolitan Police launched a criminal investigation into his misconduct in public office. It has been reported that Mandelson used a private email to correspond with government figures and Epstein.
In the House of Commons, Starmer told MPs Mandelson had “betrayed our country” after “lying repeatedly” about his ties with Epstein. But the government’s attempts to water down a Conservative party-led demand for releasing an array of documents, including due diligence conducted before Lord Mandelson’s ambassadorial appointment, were met with fierce opposition from Labour MPs.
While the government wanted to carve out an exemption, saying they won’t release papers “prejudicial to UK national security or international relations”, a large group of backbenchers — led by former deputy PM Angela Rayner — opposed this position, calling for complete transparency. The fury from within Labour ranks, BBC News reported, caught the Starmer administration by surprise, and it was forced to accept that any documents deemed a risk to national security should be referred to parliament’s intelligence and security committee.
Norwegian PM’s ties
Meanwhile, the Nobel Institute said it was awaiting an explanation from Norway’s ex-premier Thorbjorn Jagland — a former chair of the committee the peace prize — over his reported links to Epstein.
Norwegian newspaper VG, referencing the released documents, reported Jagland had extensive contact with Epstein.
At one point, it said, Jagland asked for financial help to buy an apartment. Jagland told the newspaper the loans for his properties had all been obtained from the Norwegian bank DNB.
Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the institute, said, “If it turns out that Thorbjorn Jagland received significant financial benefits from Jeffrey Epstein while serving as a member of the Nobel Committee, that would be contrary to our code of ethics.”
Jagland was chair of the committee that selects the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize winner between 2009 and 2015.
Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2026
