Last night, a spokesman for the bank refused to comment on whether Lord Mandelson was involved in the Greek project. The peer who became close to Gordon Brown and was a key figure in the government's response to the 2008 credit crisis would certainly be well-placed to offer advice.
Lord Mandelson was previously forced to resign from the government after it emerged he had borrowed more than £370,000 from Geoffrey Robinson, a fellow Labour minister, to purchase a property. Yesterday, in a statement, Lord Mandelson declined to confirm he had made a bid for the property, but said that any purchase would be made in the "normal" way with a loan from his bank.
The house interesting Lord Mandelson is thought to be owned by Richard Lawson, a businessman. Mr Lawson declined to comment last night.
Richard Bacon, a Conservative MP, said the proposed property purchase was "of considerable public interest". "As a cabinet minister Lord Mandelson earned a decent wage and more when he was at the European Commission," he said. "It is of considerable public interest how he can afford such an expensive home within barely a year of leaving government."
After leaving office following Mr Brown's defeat last year, Lord Mandelson largely disappeared from public life, making only intermittent appearances in the House of Lords.
Last year, he set up a strategic advice consultancy, Global Counsel, with the communications group WPP. Because of the structure of Global Counsel, limited financial information is available and its clients are not known. Lord Mandelson is one of several former senior Labour figures who have set up opaque financial arrangements for their business interests since leaving government.
Ministers must disclose details of their work after stepping down, but by setting up consultancies, the identities of those they work for are not publicly disclosed.
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