Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been hit hard by Lord Peter Mandelson's removal from his key post as British Ambassador to the United States following the latest revelations about his past dealings with the late American fixer and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
A dismissal ultimately decided by Starmer himself—who until yesterday had defended him in Parliament—as stated in a Foreign Office memo signed by the new Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, already sent to the House of Commons to now respond to urgent questions from MPs and the inevitable barrage of criticism from the opposition. The position of 71-year-old Mandelson—selected last year by the prime minister as his politically appointed ambassador to Washington to ensure the forging of solid relations with Donald Trump within the framework of the traditional "special relationship" with his great American ally—had been denounced by newspapers as no longer tenable in the wake of new accusations and revelations reverberating from the US regarding his former close association with Epstein.
Mandelson, a much-maligned eminence grise of Tony Blair's New Labour Party and a repeatedly scandal-ridden minister, attempted to save himself yesterday by renewing his mea culpa for his dealings with the American financier who committed suicide in prison, and expressing "enormous regret" after his past apologies. Starmer reiterated his confidence in him less than 24 hours ago in Parliament, during yesterday's Question Time, in the face of calls for his resignation from the Tory opposition, as well as growing embarrassment on the benches of the Labour majority.
The situation has been made worse by a flood of new discoveries filtering out of America, such as the one – highlighted today by the pro-conservative Daily Telegraph – which suggests that the now former ambassador had encouraged Epstein to “fight” against justice at the time of his first conviction in Florida in 2008 for sexual exploitation of underage girls (which, however, resulted in a lenient plea bargain).
"I believed in his innocence at the time," Lord Mandelson returned to his defense, repeating that he had been "deceived" by the man to whom he had sent a birthday card full of innuendo in 2003, calling their relationship "best friends." And this is without taking into account the allegations of business exchanges and lucrative consultancy work, which he also cultivated as a minister and after the discredited financier had already been put on trial in his homeland for the first time. "In light of further information on emails written by Peter Mandelson," reads today's Foreign Office statement, "the Prime Minister has asked the Foreign Secretary to withdraw him as ambassador with immediate effect. These emails reveal a broader and deeper relationship between Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein than we knew at the time of his appointment—particularly regarding Mandelson's suggestion" that Epstein resist US prosecution in 2008.
