Pakistan, Feb. 2 -- Former British government minister Peter Mandelson has resigned from Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party following fresh media reports linking him to disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein, according to reports on Sunday.

Mandelson, a senior Labour figure who played a key role in the party's rise to power under former prime minister Tony Blair, said he was stepping down to avoid causing "further embarrassment" to the party. He was dismissed last year by Starmer from his role as Britain's ambassador to the United States after earlier revelations about his ties to Epstein.

"I have been further linked this weekend to the understandable furore surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, and I feel regretful and sorry about this,...