‘WOULD HAVE NEVER APPOINTED MANDELSON’- Starmer says after Epstein email disclosure
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would not have appointed Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the United States had he known the “nature and extent” of Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein revealed in newly surfaced Bloomberg emails.
Responding to media questions, Starmer said the emails and Mandelson’s late responses to officials’ questions showed Mandelson had wanted to challenge Epstein’s conviction, which Starmer said cut across his government’s stance on violence against women and girls.
Starmer added he learned the contents of the emails only last Wednesday evening, after defending Mandelson at Prime Minister’s Questions earlier that day.
Peter Mandelson, Britain’s ambassador to the U.S., was sacked by Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday after a trove of emails revealed the depth of his ties with the late convicted U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Starmer, struggling in opinion polls after numerous setbacks, had strongly backed his ambassador on Wednesday as a state visit by U.S. President Donald Trump, with whom Mandelson had developed strong ties, looms this week.
Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, had counted princes and the political elite among his friends, many of whom have since been tarred by the association.
