Prior to today’s state visit by U.S. President Donald Trump to the U.K., Prime Minister Keir Starmer is still defending his appointment of disgraced Lord Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. As reported by Politico last night, he stated: “Peter Mandelson, before he was appointed, went through a due diligence process…. But had I known then what I know now, I’d have never appointed him, because what emerged last week were emails, Bloomberg emails, which showed that the nature and extent of the relationship that Peter Mandelson had with Epstein was far different to what I had understood to be the position when I appointed him.”
On Sept. 10, after Mandelson’s intimate friendship with pederast Jeffrey Epstein was revealed, Starmer maintained that Mandelson had been fully security-checked before taking up the role, and that Mandelson was the right person for the job. Further, he declared: “I have confidence in him and he’s playing an important role in the U.K.-U.S. relationship.” The Guardian reported at the time that one person “familiar with Mandelson’s process” said he had been subject to the highest level of checking, called developed vetting.
However, the next day, Mandelson was unceremoniously dismissed, and No. 10 Downing Street gave as a reason for its turnaround, that “the emails show that the depth and extent of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffery Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment, in particular Peter Mandelson’s suggestion that Jeffery Epstein’s first conviction was wrongful and should be challenged in new information.” However, the idea that what was known about Mandelson’s association with Epstein by the time of the Lord’s December 2024 appointment was insufficient to disqualify him, is laughable.
Bloomberg published last week leaked emails that showed Mandelson had written to Epstein after his conviction in 2008 for soliciting sex from a minor: “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.” Perhaps the British lord is relying upon protections in Britain from convictions on child molestation not similarly available in the States. Regardless, he continued: “You have to be incredibly resilient, fight for early release and be philosophical about it as much as you can…. The whole thing has been years of torture and now you have to show the world how big a person you are, and how strong.” He assured Epstein that “your friends stay with you and love you.”
For his part, Epstein urged Mandelson to ask “your guy” to have a discussion on his behalf with a “mr big.” Later, according to The Telegraph, in 2010, when Epstein was out of prison, Mandelson, then the U.K. business secretary, had no trouble with allowing Epstein to help broker a deal for JP Morgan, in acquiring part of an RBS commodities firm. Starmer is to host Trump on Sept. 18, the day after King Charles and Queen Camilla do their best to charm him with the pomp and circumstance of British royalty.
