British police are searching two properties linked to former ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson as they investigate allegations of misconduct in public office over links to late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

As the fallout from the scandal continued to engulf Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday, police said they were carrying out searches at two addresses located in the Camden area of London and the southwestern county of Wiltshire.

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Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Hayley Sewart said the Met’s Central Specialist Crime team was searching the two properties in relation to “an ongoing investigation into misconduct in public office offences, involving a 72-year-old man”.

Mandelson, 72, has homes in Wiltshire and in the Camden area of London.

The former envoy, who is being investigated over documents suggesting he passed sensitive government information to Epstein a decade and a half ago, has not been arrested or charged.

Starmer had already sacked Mandelson after a first batch of emails were published in September, showing that he had remained friends with Epstein after the late financier’s 2008 conviction for sex offences involving a minor.

But emails recently released by the US Department of Justice appear to show that Mandelson, as business secretary under the Labour government led by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, also passed on sensitive, potentially market-moving information to the financier.

The latest revelations have prompted Starmer’s opponents and even those in his own party to question his judgement at a time when opinion polls indicate he is deeply unpopular with the British public.

The prime minister apologised on Thursday for believing Mandelson’s “lies” when he appointed him ambassador. His government has pledged to “provide whatever support and assistance the police need”.

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He is now under pressure to sack his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, who is close to Mandelson and is believed to have pushed for his appointment as US ambassador.

Mandelson, who resigned from Starmer’s Labour Party on Sunday and quit his position in parliament’s upper chamber on Tuesday, has not responded to messages seeking comment.