Georgia Gould on her media rounds – interviewed her by Ed Balls on Good Morning Britain

FORMER council leader Georgia Gould has told how she is “devastated” by the conduct of her friend Peter Mandelson – as the disgraced peer left the House of Lords and faces a police investigation over the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.

Now a government minister and an MP in Queen’s Park and Maida Vale, Ms Gould faced awkward questions as she was sent out for government media rounds on Sunday and yesterday (Wednesday).

She was asked how she felt about messages Mr Mandelson sent to Epstein – the paedophile financier – while appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

“He’s been somebody I’ve known for my whole life and I’ve been profoundly shocked and devastated by what I’ve read,” Ms Gould said.

Mr Mandelson is now known to have continued a friendship with Epstein after the trafficker had been convicted at his first trial.

The release of millions of files has led to claims that Mr Mandelson benefited financially – he says he cannot recall payments of several thousands of pounds entering his account – and allegations that he had shared critical government information with Epstein.

Ms Gould’s father, the late pollster Lord Philip Gould, worked closely with Mr Mandelson during Tony Blair’s New Labour years and their families shared social events together.

Ms Gould added: “I think my Dad would have been deeply shocked and saddened by those messages. The fact that in the midst of a financial crisis, when everyone was focused on trying to serve the country, that information was being shared with Epstein – I couldn’t have imagined that was possible.”

She added she was thinking of Epstein’s victims at this time.

The TV interview was conducted by Ed Balls, Labour’s former shadow chancellor.

When Ms Gould began a seven-year spell as the leader of Camden Council in 2017, Mr Mandelson was one of the first high-profile names to congratulate her on getting the job.

An example of the closeness was illustrated in an archive clip shared online this week in which Mr Mandelson had told an audience event that he made the decision to shave off his moustache in the 1990s while on holiday with Lord Gould and Alastair Campbell in Majorca.

The children of these key figures of the era – Mr Campbell was head of communications – were given a vote on the fate of his facial hair.

Mr Campbell has spoken on his podcast this week about the “sleepless nights” the scandal has given him and said that he has had his “ups and downs” with Mr Mandelson over the years.

Mr Mandelson titled his memoir The Third Man – placing himself as the key figure amid the Blair and Gordon Brown dynamic.

While appearing on Sophy Ridge’s politics show on Sky on Sunday, Ms Gould was asked whether the public had lost faith in the system because friends, relatives and spouses were often connected in power circles.

“We are harder on random people than we are on friends and family,” Ms Ridge suggested, to which Ms Gould replied that the new intake of Labour MPs at the 2024 general election had been “people from all walks of life”.

She added: “I’m really clear on my values and my integrity. I would uphold that regardless of the individual – if I knew them or not.”

Peter Mandelson is a Camden resident  [BBC]

Mr Mandelson was not long ago considered by party organisers as a big draw on the doorstep and he turned up for canvassing sessions to support Labour’s candidate Praful Nargund in Islington North – a contest lost to Jeremy Corbyn, who was standing as an independent candidate.

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, the Holborn and St Pancras MP, has faced day after day of questions about why he appointed Mr Mandelson – who had twice resigned from government positions in previous scandals – to the prestigious role of UK ambassador to the United States.

He has blamed Mr Mandelson’s “lies” and said he was unaware of the extent of his friendship with Epstein.

On Sunday, Morgan McSweeney, Mr Starmer’s chief of staff and closest adviser, resigned after confirming he had been a key driver in the appointment.

Mr McSweeney is said to also have had a prime role in candidate selection ahead of the 2024 elections – with the added claim emerging this week that Mr Mandelson heavily involved himself too.

The parliamentary Labour Party backed Mr Starmer to carry on as their leader on Monday evening, but there are predictions the events of the last week will only make the upcoming Gorton and Denton by-election in the north west, and then May’s local elections – which include a boroughwide vote for seats at Camden Town Hall – more difficult.

Ms Gould’s name appears in the Epstein files, but only because one of the trafficker’s contacts is being rude about her in an email.

Police were searching two of Mr Mandelson’s properties last week, including his villa close to Regent’s Park in Camden, where photographers have been camped outside all week.

Mr Mandelson is understood to believe that has not committed any criminal act.

The New Journal’s late literary editor Illtyd Harrington was also a friend of Mr Mandelson.

While reviewing The Third Man for this newspaper, he recalled a stark conversation in his kitchen in 1975 when Mr Mandelson had told him: “I want the highest political office in the land ­– and I’ll get it.”