The former Labour cabinet minister even appears to have drafted a press statement as part of a PR strategy for the sex offender.

Mandelson’s efforts were part of what now appears to be a double-pronged bid to derail this newspaper’s investigation into Andrew’s link with Epstein.

The MoS revealed in October how just before our bombshell interview with Ms Giuffre was published in February 2011, Andrew embroiled the Metropolitan Police and one of Queen Elizabeth’s most senior aides in a campaign to smear Ms Giuffre.

A shocking message showed how Andrew asked his taxpayer-funded personal protection officer to investigate Ms Giuffre and passed him her confidential US social security number.

In an extraordinary email to Ed Perkins, Queen Elizabeth’s deputy press secretary, on February 26, 2011, Andrew wrote: ‘It would also seem she has a criminal record in the States. I have given her DoB [date of birth] and social security number for investigation with XXX, the on duty ppo [personal protection officer].’

Read more: Peter Mandelson secretly tried to help Epstein shut down a Mail on Sunday investigation into the paedophile’s friendship with Andrew