Documents released Wednesday by the British government show officials believed there was a “reputational risk” to appointing Peter Mandelson because the U.S. ambassador due to his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer gave Mandelson the job anyway, only to fireside him nine months later when recent details of the connection with Epstein emerged. Starmer now faces a political storm over the choice.
Concerns were raised in a document sent to Starmer in December 2024 when he was considering appointing Mandelson, seen as vital to establishing a great relationship with the administration of President Donald Trump.
Advice to the prime minister from the top of the civil service summarized Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein over twenty years, noting that “Mandelson reportedly stayed in Epstein’s house while he was in jail in June 2009” for sexual offenses involving a minor.
It also spelled out other, unrelated reputational issues over Mandelson’s work in a previous Labour government — when he twice needed to resign over financial matters — and his work at Global Counsel, a lobbying firm he co-founded.
Lawmakers have forced Starmer’s government to reveal 1000’s of files in regards to the decision to call Mandelson to the important thing diplomatic post at first of Trump’s second term.
Keir Starmer, Prime Minister of the UK, participates in Working Session III of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit on the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC on July 11, 2024.
Chris Kleponis / Pool via CNP
Authorities published the primary batch — greater than 140 pages of documents — related to those ties on the federal government website on Wednesday.
Darren Jones, chief secretary to the prime minister, said the due diligence on Mandelson “didn’t expose the depth and extent” of his friendship with Epstein, and said Mandelson lied to Starmer in regards to the friendship.
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“Peter Mandelson should never have been afforded the privilege of representing this country,” Jones told lawmakers within the House of Commons. “I reiterate for the House that the prime minister deeply regrets taking him at his word. It was a mistake to accomplish that.”
The documents are being published in batches after review by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee. Police have asked the federal government to not release files that would compromise their criminal investigation into Mandelson.
The documents published Wednesday note that Epstein was asked questions on his relationship with Epstein, and say the prime minister’s communications director was “satisfied along with his responses.”
The responses themselves haven’t been published due to police probe.
Mandelson, 72, a former Cabinet minister, ambassador and elder statesman of the governing Labour Party, was arrested Feb. 23 at his London home on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He has been released without bail conditions because the police investigation continues.
He has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged. He doesn’t face allegations of sexual misconduct.
Starmer fired Mandelson in September after an earlier release of documents showed he had maintained contact with Epstein after the financier’s 2008 conviction for sexual offenses involving a minor.
Further details about Mandelson’s ties with Epstein, revealed in an enormous trove of files published by the U.S. Department of Justice in January, drove opponents and even some members of Starmer’s Labour Party to call for the prime minister’s resignation. Starmer survived the immediate danger, but his position stays fragile, though he never met Epstein and just isn’t implicated in his crimes.
The Epstein files suggest that Mandelson sent market-sensitive information to the convicted sex offender when he was the U.K. government’s business secretary after the 2008 financial crisis. That features an internal government report discussing ways the U.K. could raise money, including by selling off government assets.
Mandelson also appears to have told Epstein he would lobby other members of the federal government to scale back a tax on bankers’ bonuses.
Starmer has apologized to Epstein’s victims and said he was sorry for “having believed Mandelson’s lies.”
Mandelson can be facing a separate probe by the European Union’s anti-fraud office for the time he spent because the bloc’s trade representative.
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