Only last Saturday Peter Mandelson was making wisecracks about his job prospects as Sir Keir Starmer reshuffled his Government.
“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.
By Wednesday morning Lord Mandelson was deadly serious as he explained further “embarrassing” correspondence between himself and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein is likely to be published.
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”.
Speaking to YouTube channel Harry Cole Saves The West released on Wednesday the diplomat said it was “very embarrassing” to see the words published but added they were written “over 20 years ago”. He likened his association with Epstein to “an albatross around my neck”, adding he felt “profoundly upset that I was taken in” by a “charismatic criminal liar”.
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.
On Wednesday night the controversy deepened with reports of leaked emails suggesting Mandelson had helped Epstein through the “years of torture” over allegations of sex with teenagers.
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.
The report of leaked messages says Mandelson wrote: “I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened.
“I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain. You have to be incredibly resilient…
“Everything can be turned into an opportunity and that you will come through it and be stronger for it.”
‘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.
Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, who is standing to be deputy leader of the Labour Party, told The i Paper in an exclusive interview that Mandelson should resign if he is found to have broken the Ministerial Code. Asked if Mandelson should remain in post as ambassador, she replied: “No… I think that’s going to disturb quite a few people.”
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.”
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph, Labour MP Kim Johnson added: “I totally agree [with Bell]. But the fact is this was known before he was given this position in America as the ambassador. As much as he says on radio that he regrets it, the fact is that he called him his ‘best pal’ in his birthday card, he made money from him.
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”
Sarah Ransome, 41, one of Epstein’s British victims, told The Daily Telegraph: “Something is really, really wrong here. Peter Mandelson should not be ambassador. He needs to be fired. He is unsuitable to be ambassador.”
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?
“That is the precise period in which Lord Mandelson called Jeffrey Epstein his ‘best pal’. Was the Prime Minister aware of this intimate relationship when he appointed Lord Mandelson to be our ambassador in Washington?” Badenoch said.
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.
Badenoch sought to compare the Mandelson episode to the resignation of former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner last week, which only came after days of media scrutiny. “Isn’t the link between all of this his bad decisions, his bad judgment and his total weakness?” she said of Starmer.
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.
Downing Street later insisted Mandelson went through “extensive security vetting and background checks” by the Foreign Office and the Cabinet Office before taking on the ambassadorship, with Starmer’s spokesman saying the premier is confident Mandelson does not pose a current security threat.
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 US president has sought to brush off the connection with Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender who was accused of serial sex trafficking of women and girls. But even Trump’s Republican base has criticised his handling of the row.
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.
A Labour source said Starmer could not afford to risk embarrassing Trump by sacking Mandelson and drawing fresh attention to Trump’s links to the Epstein scandal.
‘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.”
But there is a risk any more revelations could overshadow Trump’s visit. While Mandelson is highly rated in Downing Street because of his ability to work with the mercurial administration, his Epstein connection is awkward for the prime minister just recovering from the loss of Rayner over a question of propriety
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.”
Mandelson has had to resign from government twice in the past, lasting fewer than five months as secretary of state for trade and industry than in 1998.
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.
After more than a year as Northern Ireland secretary, another scandal erupted related to a prior ministerial role and centred on accusations he helped the Indian billionaire Srichand Hinduja to secure a British passport in return for a £1 million donation to help fund the Millennium Dome’s faith zone. Mandelson resigned again but insisted he had done nothing wrong and was later exonerated by an independent inquiry
“He’s had enough practice at resigning, of course he should go,” a Labour MP told The i Paper.
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