By Natasha Clark

For Lord Mandelson, there are few options left to 'de-escalate' the situation in which he now finds himself.

And it is the word "de-escalate" that appears on a beautiful Emma Bridgewater mug belonging to him, in today's Times interview photographs.

His bookshelf features similarly fitting tomes including 'The Escape Artist' and 'False Alarm'.

On Sunday evening, despite serving, shaping and benefiting from the Labour Party for his entire life, he has now been forced to cut them adrift, in his words, to save them from "further embarrassment".

But further embarrassment is near-certain to come for the former business secretary, as another tranche of Epstein files has been released by the US Department of Justice.

They appear to show that the former ambassador to the US passed confidential emails from No10 aides to Epstein, when he was serving in Government as business secretary.

The Met police are now looking at whether to open an investigation into alleged misconduct in public office, though the bar for this is said to be very high.

Yet, anger from MPs on all........

© LBC