Too Little, Too Late? Questions Grow Over Families First North East’s Mandelson Delay...

From Quiet Removal to Public Statement – Paul Thompson, the CEO of Families First north East is facing questions as to why it took so long to make a statement on Mandelson's involvement in the charity?

Local Charity Families First North East Issues Statement After Year-Long Delay in Peter Mandelson Disassociation...

6th Feb 2026

The Hartlepool Based Charity Families First North East has finally issued a public statement addressing its historic association with Peter Mandelson, a move that's only led to renewed questions as to why it's taken the organisation almost a year to do so, particularly given that Mandelson’s links to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein had been in the public domain since at least 2023.

The charity’s statement, dated 6th of February 2026, emerged only after what it describes as “disingenuous comments” circulating online in recent days, rather than as a proactive act of transparency. In it, Chief Executive Paul Thompson insists that Mandelson’s role as “Honorary President” was purely titular, carried no statutory authority, and had not involved any active engagement with the organisation for nearly two decades. He further states that a “conscious decision” was taken in February 2025 to remove Mandelson from internal documents and materials, effectively ending any remaining association at that point.

Yet this timeline raises uncomfortable questions for Families First North East. By February 2025, serious scrutiny of Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein had already been widespread for well over a year. Reports concerning Epstein’s network, his private island, and his high-profile associates had dominated headlines throughout 2023 and into 2024, making it difficult to accept that a high-profile local charity would only belatedly conclude that a disassociation was necessary.

Critics argue that if Families First North East truly regarded the connection as irrelevant or defunct, it should have clarified that position publicly far sooner, rather than waiting until external pressure had made its silence untenable. The fact that the charity continued to reference Mandelson internally until February 2025 suggests that, whatever the Chief Executive now claims, the link had not been treated as entirely historic or immaterial.

The organisation's been keen to publicly emphasise its positive impact on Hartlepool, highlighting significant levels of service delivery, local employment, and community engagement. Thompson’s statement stresses that all trustees and patrons are unpaid volunteers and that the charity’s payroll supports 85 local employees who provide essential services to vulnerable children and adults.

However, the laudable nature of Families First North East’s frontline work doesn't negate the legitimate concern that reputational risks were seemingly not managed with any sufficient urgency.

The delay's also fed into a broader debate about governance within the voluntary sector and the responsibility of charities to act swiftly when prominent figures linked to them become embroiled in controversy. While Families First North East now insists its connection to Mandelson effectively ended years ago, its own actions suggest this position was only formalised recently and only after public scrutiny on the charity intensified.

As the charity seeks to move forward, it now faces the challenge of convincing the public that its leadership is both transparent and responsive to legitimate concerns. For now, its belated statement has done very little to quieten critics who believe that nearly a year was far too long to address an association that had become deeply problematic long before February 2025.