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King Charles has agreed with the Prime Minister that Lord Peter Mandelson "should be removed from the list of Privy Counsellors on grounds that he brought the reputation of the Privy Council into disrepute", Sir Keir Starmer told MPs during PMQS this afternoon. It's a prestigious role where members, comprised primarily of current and former senior ministers and members of the judiciary, act as formal advisers to the monarch.

It comes after further details of Lord Mandelson's relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein came to light in the latest tranch of files released by the US Department of Justice on Friday. The disgraced politician is facing a criminal investigation and has quit the House of Lords.

Documents appear to how arrangements for Lord Mandelson to stay at the disgraced financier's Manhattan townhouse, with warnings that he should be cautious about the media catching wind. And other messages appear to show the politician celebrating Epstein's release from jail as "liberation day".

One email thread from July 2009 apparently shows the then-government minister asking Epstein how they should celebrate his release from prison after serving 13 months for soliciting prostitution with a minor.

Epstein responded: "With grace and modesty (those are the names of two strippers)." Lord Mandelson said: "From now on, grace and modesty sd (should) be discovered in London."

The emails can be traced to him because his BT Internet email address was left unredacted in one of the messages, and his name is in another.

Lord Mandelson also appeared to advise Epstein that Andrew, the King's disgraced brother, should "sit tight" as questions were mounting over the two men's ties, after the publication of a photo of Andrew with his arm around Virginia Giuffre.

During PMQs today, Sir Keir said Lord Mandelson "betrayed our country" by leaking information to Jeffrey Epstein.

The Prime Minister told MPs that he had "lied repeatedly" about his relationship with paedophile financier Epstein during the appointment process to the US ambassador role.

"Mandelson betrayed our country, our Parliament and my party," he said. "He lied repeatedly to my team when asked about his relationship with Epstein before and during his tenure as ambassador, I regret appointing him. If I knew then what I know now, he would never have been anywhere near government."

The Prime Minister said he "regrets" appointing Peter Mandelson as the ambassador to Washington DC.

The Privy Council serves as an important link between elected politicians and the constitutional authority of the sovereign. Members are known as privy counsellors and are addressed as 'The Right Honourable'. Membership lasts for life, though as with the case of Lord Mandelson, the a counsellor can be removed.

This has happened in recent history, with Labour MP Elliot Morley's membership being revoked in 2011 after he was convicted for fraud for his parliamentary expenses, and in 2013, Lord Prescott asked to be removed in protest at changes to press regulations made in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal.