“I have now discovered the new and best word to describe my career: durable,” he joked to an audience of senior Whitehall mandarins gathered to hear the UK’s Ambassador to Washington lecture on US-UK relations in the grounds of Tudor mansion Ditchley Park near Oxford. Winston Churchill used the house as a secret base during the early years of World War II, meeting presidential envoys to secure American support.
On Tuesday, the US House Oversight Committee published the 238-page scrapbook created for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003 by Ghislaine Maxwell, his convicted co-conspirator. It included a letter from Mandelson in which he called Epstein his “best pal”.
Epstein also brokered a deal with Mandelson in 2010 over the sale of a UK taxpayer-owned banking business after the American financier had been convicted of child sex offences, The Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday, citing emails seen by the paper. Mandelson was business secretary in the Gordon Brown Government at the time of the deal.
According to The Sun the Labour grandee had written: “Your friends stay with you and love you” and had suggested Epstein “fight for early release” from jail.
“I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain. You have to be incredibly resilient…
‘He’s got to go’
The Labour peer is now under pressure from MPs and the victims of Epstein’s crimes to resign his post in Washington, where he has succeeded in courting the Trump White House.
Ribeiro-Addy went on to say Downing Street should launch an inquiry, adding: “There should definitely be an investigation into it because there will be a huge amount of concern and if the outcome is that he should resign, he should.”
Another Labour MP told The i Paper: “He’s got to go, otherwise it’s going to be death by a thousand cuts. What happens if the Sunday papers have more? That’s even closer to the state visit”
On Wednesday lunchtime, Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, used every opportunity at Prime Minister’s Questions to raise the issue. “He says the ambassador has expressed full regret, but the victims of the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein have called for Lord Mandelson to be sacked. And just so the House is aware in 2019 Jeffrey Epstein was convicted of child prostitution and sex trafficking that took place between 2002 and 2005?
Starmer declined to answer, saying: “As she and the House would expect, full due process was followed during this appointment as it is with all ambassadors.” He refused to spell out what he knew about Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein and when, and declined to answer Badenoch’s request for the Government to publish correspondence between the pair.
Trying to deflect Badenoch’s line of questioning, a flustered Starmer used a bizarre attack line at Badenoch. “I think she is finally catching up with the questions that she should have asked last week about the Deputy Prime Minister,” he said.
Controversy comes days before Trump’s UK visit
The diplomat is set to represent Britain “as usual” next week as Donald Trump makes a state visit to the UK. It will combine the pomp of a state dinner hosted by the King and political talks with Starmer.
The existence of the now famous note containing an imagined dialogue between Trump and Epstein full of innuendo and double-entendres set within the sketched outline of a nude female torso has been public since July. Trump had initially responded to that coverage with blanket denials, said he was target of a “hoax” and launched a defamation lawsuit in which his lawyers questioned the note’s existence. On Tuesday White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration would support a professional handwriting expert review of the letter Trump allegedly sent to Epstein to prove it does not include the president’s signature.
‘No 10 is hoping to ride this out’
“The Prime Minister can’t sack Peter in the week before the state visit and draw attention to Trump’s connections to Epstein,” the source said, adding. “No 10 is hoping to ride this out.”
Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said the Civil Service Commission needs to look into whether Mandelson broke the Diplomatic Service Code by failing to come clean over this sooner, adding, “We cannot afford to have an Ambassador to the United States who is compromised by ‘embarrassing’ secrets.”
That departure came after it emerged he had bought a London home with the help of a secret interest-free £373,000 loan from his millionaire ministerial colleague Geoffrey Robinson.
“He’s had enough practice at resigning, of course he should go,” a Labour MP told The i Paper.
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