Current Events > Peter Mandelson, UK ambassador to US, fired over Epstein friendship

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/sep/11/keir-starmer-sacks-peter-mandelson-over-jeffrey-epstein-revelations

Excerpts:

The Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty told MPs that Lord Mandelson had not disclosed the extent and depth of his friendship with Epstein, a convicted child sex offender, when he was appointed as the ambassador.

He said No 10 had not known about emails from Mandelson to Epstein suggesting his 2008 conviction for soliciting a child for prostitution was wrongful and should be challenged.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: ...The emails show that the depth and extent of Peter Mandelsons relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment..."

...The episode will raise questions about Starmers judgment in having appointed Mandelson, given it was known that the ambassador had continued his association with Epstein after the financiers 2008 conviction.

...In an email from June 2008, which was not disputed by his spokesperson, Mandelson wrote to Epstein: 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, fight for early release and be philosophical about it as much as you can.

It continued: Everything can be turned into an opportunity and that you will come through it and be stronger for it.

The friendship between the two men came under a renewed spotlight earlier this week after Democratic members of the US House oversight committee released Epsteins 50th birthday book, in which Mandelson called him my best pal in a handwritten note.

Now, it's important to be aware that the stuff about the depth of Mandelson's friendship with Epstein not being known earlier is a load of crap. Even assuming it's true Starmer didn't know about these specific emails when he made Mandelson an ambassador, his friendship with Epstein, including after Epstein's conviction (as the article notes), has been public knowledge for years. Mandelson is also connected to all sorts of other unpleasant people, some of whom he has made very large sums of money doing consultancy for. He's been nicknamed the Prince of Darkness for decades because of his activities in his political career, and had to resign from the cabinet twice in three years over separate corruption scandals. Starmer knew exactly what sort of person Mandelson was when he appointed him - that's why he appointed him.

I mean that sounds like he was overqualified for the Trump admin

Surprised it took this long and it was shocking that the UK even appointed him to begin with.

Starks posted...

Surprised it took this long and it was shocking that the UK even appointed him to begin with.

If you know Mandelson's history (and Starmer's present) with the Labour Party, specifically the right wing of the Labour Party, it's not shocking at all.

Mandelson has never been able to resist the wealthy.

This is like the third time he's had to leave government positions because of his corrupt relationship with one of them.

How do you acquire emails from a long deleted account?

CobraGT posted...

How do you acquire emails from a long deleted account?

by accepting the fact that companies like google never actually delete your data even when you tell them to.

Even now Mandelson seems to think Epstein was the real victim, according to this article from the Sunday Times: https://archive.ph/wJtMN

Excerpts:

"The position he has shared with friends is as categorical as it is incendiary. He believes he has been singled out, but also that Epstein was effectively a swinger, someone who was addicted to open relationships and who procured young female models to parties for the enjoyment of rich men. This does not, Mandelson believes, make Epstein a paedophile, despite his criminal conviction for child sex offences."

"He does not believe, despite the conviction for soliciting child prostitutes, and the numerous allegations that surfaced before his death, that Epstein was a paedophile. He sees this as a disingenuous interpretation of Epsteins modus operandi, which he thinks was to host parties for financial associates where young models, mostly adults, were available for sex and would often be well paid. Since Mandelson is gay, he was not invited to the parties in question. He also believes that Epstein, though a criminal, was himself the victim of extortion."

Also this, which again undermines the idea that Keir Starmer had no way of knowing about Mandelson and Epstein when he made Mandelsonan ambassador:

"The Sunday Times revealed that before Mandelsons appointment Starmer was personally presented with a due diligence report produced by the Cabinet Offices propriety and ethics team. The two-page document was distinct from the official vetting process and designed to give Starmer an overview of information about Mandelson that might pose reputational or diplomatic risks.

According to two sources, it explicitly referenced Mandelsons relationship with Epstein, which, even then, was known to have postdated the late financiers conviction. It was public information that he had stayed at Epsteins New York home after the latters conviction, and that they had spent time together on the Caribbean island of St Barts. He had even addressed it publicly, saying he very much regretted that they were ever introduced. The report also examined his business dealings with China. Like the findings on Epstein, most of the information in this section was open source and could be discovered online.

No 10 insists Mandelson was removed because he materially misled Starmer about the nature of his dealings with Epstein. Yet the existence of the document poses new, and painful, questions about the prime ministers judgment. If he knew then that a candidate for a role had maintained a friendship with the worlds most notorious paedophile, why did he ever consider him suitable?"

Other parts of the article, about why Starmer's chief advisor saw Mandelson as useful, give some impression of what thoroughly nasty people the right wing of the Labour Party are.