Former Hartlepool Labour MP Peter Mandelson To Be Stripped of His 2009 Honorary Freeman of the Borough Title...
- teessidetoday
- Sep 14
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 15
Labour councillors in Hartlepool finally cave into pressure & are preparing to strip former MP Peter Mandelson of one of the town’s highest civic honours.
14th Sep 2025
Former Labour MP Peter Mandelson is said to be on the verge of losing one of Hartlepool's highest honours, after Labour councillors in Hartlepool finally bowed to public pressure.
Hartlepool Borough Council is now set to vote when it meets for the councils full meeting on October 2nd to strip Mr Mandelson of the Honorary Freedom of the Borough title which was handed to him back in 2009.
The bombshell move follows leaked emails exposing the full extent of Mandelson’s cosy ties with the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Labour council leader Brenda Harrison has reportedly written a letter condemning Mandelson’s Epstein connection, branding it “totally incompatible” with Hartlepool’s top civic award.
Mandelson's Links to Jonathan Brash arent going away anytime soon !
But the scandal doesn’t stop there. With it being claimed Mr Mandelson’s long-running links with Jonathan Brash – now Labour MP for Hartlepool – have been dragged into the spotlight, where it's alleged Mr Mandelson helped propel Brash’s rise from council leader in back in 2009 to Member of Parliament in 2024, coaching him behind the scenes throughout.
Meanwhile, Mandelson’s role as president of local charity Families First North East has sparked fury.
Campaigners are now said to be demanding he now be booted out of the charity altogether, saying his Epstein ties leave no place for him in organisations supporting local families.
If councillors vote to strip him of the honour, Mandelson will go down in Hartlepool history as one of the few ever to be publicly shamed and stripped of the Freedom of the Borough.
