Peter Mandelson’s skills as a political operator were so highly prized by successive Labour prime ministers that they were apparently prepared to overlook past scandals to hand him a series of senior roles.

Yet the release of emails by the US Department of Justice appear to show Mandelson himself was receiving advice on political strategy from US financier and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Crucially, Lord Mandelson appears to have kept Epstein informed of developments in the immediate aftermath of the 2010 general election, as Gordon Brown made a doomed attempt to form a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats.

On 9 May, Lord Mandelson appears to tell Epstein: “GB now having ‘secret’ talks with [Lib Dem leader Nick] Clegg in Foreign Office”.

And then, at 09.07am on Monday 10 May, he appears to tell Epstein: “Finally got him to go today”.

Hours later, Brown announced that he would be standing down as Labour leader but continuing as prime minister.

Brown’s resignation as Labour leader, it was later claimed, was the price demanded by Clegg to begin coalition talks with Labour.

In the end, these talks went nowhere and Clegg formed a coalition government with David Cameron’s Conservatives.

Lord Mandelson has been approached for comment about these email exchanges, which appear to give an almost minute-by-minute account of the five days of coalition wrangling, which gripped the nation after there was no clear general election winner.

Read More: ‘Finally got him to go today’: Mandelson’s emails to Epstein on Gordon Brown