LONDON: Just days ahead of US President Trump’s state visit to the United Kingdom, the British government on Thursday dismissed its ambassador to Washington over ties to American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Peter Mandelson, a former Cabinet minister and EU trade commissioner from the centre-left Labour Party, sent Epstein an email in 2008—prior to his appointment as ambassador—stating: “I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened.”
Emails published on Wednesday by ‘The Sun’ have revealed Mandelson’s deeper ties to a convicted sex offender.
The emails, sent after Epstein was indicted by a grand jury in 2006, show Mandelson offering support to the disgraced financier. Epstein later pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting sex from a minor, National Public Radio (NPR) reported.
On Thursday, Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty informed Parliament that Prime Minister Keir Starmer had formally withdrawn Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador, effective immediately.
According to the Foreign Office, the newly surfaced emails demonstrate that Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein was “materially different” from what was known at the time of his appointment.
One email singled out by officials showed Mandelson describing Epstein’s conviction as “wrongful” and suggesting it should be challenged.
A veteran of UK politics, Mandelson gained notoriety as a key strategist behind the Labour Party’s 1997 election victory under Tony Blair, earning the moniker “Prince of Darkness” for his influence behind the scenes.
He previously resigned from Blair’s Cabinet in 2001 amid controversy over allegations that he had helped an Indian billionaire obtain a British passport—a claim from which he was later cleared by an official inquiry. After returning to Parliament, Mandelson declared himself a “fighter, not a quitter.”
His firing as ambassador complicates Starmer’s efforts to build rapport with the Trump administration, and it comes as the US president prepares to travel on Tuesday to the UK for a state visit.
The British Keir Starmer is facing questions over what he knew about Lord Mandelson’s friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein before he was appointed as the UK’s ambassador to Washington, the BBC reported.
The government said the move followed the emergence of emails showing “the depth and extent” of the pair’s relationship, which was “materially different from that known at the time of his appointment”.
The Conservatives have called for all vetting advice, communications, and documents related to Lord Mandelson’s appointment to be published.
