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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
UK fires ambassador to US Peter Mandelson over Epstein links
By Christian Edwards, CNN
Updated:
1:29 PM EDT, Thu September 11, 2025
Source: CNN
Peter Mandelson was fired as Britain’s ambassador to the United
States on Thursday after his ties to the convicted sex offender became
another unwelcome problem for the embattled Prime Minister Keir
Starmer.
Mandelson had been under mounting pressure over his relationship with
Epstein after US lawmakers on Monday released a “,” compiled for
Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003, in which the veteran Labour party
politician had penned a handwritten note describing Epstein as “my
best pal.”
Despite the revelation, Starmer forcefully defended his ambassador on
Wednesday, telling parliament that Mandelson had his “full
confidence.”
Hours later, the scandal snowballed after Bloomberg published a trove
of emails between Mandelson and Epstein, in which Mandelson expressed
support for his friend and offered to discuss his infamous 2008 Florida
case with his political contacts.
Epstein pleaded guilty to two state prostitution charges and served 13
months in prison after a controversial plea deal. But the emails
obtained by Bloomberg showed that Mandelson continued to support
Epstein after that conviction.
“I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what
has happened,” Mandelson wrote. He gave Epstein advice, suggesting he
fight back using techniques from Sun Tzu’s “Art of War.”
Announcing Mandelson’s withdrawal, Britain’s Foreign Office told
CNN in a statement that the emails showed that “the depth and
extent” of the now-ex-ambassador’s relationship with Epstein is
“materially different from that known at the time of his
appointment.”
In a letter to staff at the embassy following his dismissal, Mandelson
described his role as ambassador as the ‘privilege of my life,’ the
BBC reported.
“The circumstances surrounding the announcement today are ones which
I deeply regret. I continue to feel utterly awful about my association
with Epstein 20 years ago and the plight of his victims,” he said in
the letter said, according to the BBC.
He said he had “no alternative” to accepting Starmer’s decision.
James Roscoe will be the interim ambassador to the US, having
previously been the deputy head of mission at the embassy in Washington
since July 2022.
The scandal surrounding Mandelson had created another huge political
headache for the beleaguered Starmer, who faced questions about his
judgment in appointing Mandelson when the ambassador’s friendship
with Epstein was well known.
‘My best pal’
Mandelson – who now has been forced out of three senior government
roles over separate scandals – for years batted away questions about
his links to Epstein. Asked last year about his relationship with the
sex offender, Mandelson said he regretted meeting him, but dismissed
the question as a journalistic “obsession.”
But the allegations became harder to dismiss after Democrats in
Congress released copies of Epstein’s so-called 50th “birthday
book,” collated by Ghislaine Maxwell, his then-girlfriend, in 2003.
Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking in 2022 and is serving a
20-year sentence.
Among the book’s 238 pages is a handwritten note, interspersed with
photographs of Mandelson and Epstein, which starts: “Once upon a
time, an intelligent, sharp-witted man they call ‘mysterious’
parachuted into my life.”
Mandelson described spending “many hours” waiting for this man to
turn up, meeting his “interesting” friends, and how this man would
whisk him away to “one of his glorious homes,” next to a picture of
an island.
“Wherever he is in the world, he remains my best pal,” wrote
Mandelson.
In an interview Wednesday with The Sun, a British tabloid, Mandelson
said he found those words “very embarrassing” to read, and said he
feared more “very embarrassing” exchanges would soon emerge. He
stressed that he wrote his message before Epstein was convicted in
2008.
“I regret very much that I fell for his lies. I fell and accepted
assurances that he had given me about his indictment, his original
criminal case in Florida,” Mandelson added.
The Foreign Office said that “Mandelson’s suggestion that Jeffrey
Epstein’s first conviction was wrongful and should be challenged is
new information.”
“In light of that, and mindful of the victims of Epstein’s crimes,
he has been withdrawn as Ambassador with immediate effect,” it said.
Question of judgment
Mandelson, widely known in political circles as the “Prince of
Darkness” for his Machiavellian skills, became Labour’s director of
communications in the 1980s. He helped to turn the party into a slick,
global-facing, capital-friendly project known as “New Labour” that
eventually won a landslide election in 1997 under Tony Blair.
“We are not communists, we are New Labour,” he famously told a
gathering of corporate Americans the following year. “We are
intensely relaxed about people getting rich, as long as they pay their
taxes.”
But critics say Mandelson himself has long been too relaxed about his
own relations with the filthy rich. He resigned as a government
minister in 1998 for not declaring a loan he obtained from a
millionaire colleague. He returned to government the next year, but
resigned again in 2001 over claims he used his position to influence a
British passport application from a wealthy donor.
Mandelson then left Westminster for Brussels, becoming the European
commissioner for trade from 2004 to 2008. He then returned to
government for a third time under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, before
taking to the private sector after Labour lost the 2010 general
election.
When Starmer won a landslide election last July, he initially left
Karen Pierce in place as Britain’s ambassador to the US. But after
Donald Trump won a second term as US president in November, Starmer
swapped what was considered a steady set of hands for a political
heavyweight – a maverick able to maneuver in Trump’s Washington.
Initially, his appointment reaped rewards. Mandelson, whose knowledge
of trade issues was a factor in his appointment, played a critical role
in negotiating the US-UK trade deal.
Standing alongside Trump in the Oval Office on the day that deal was
signed in May, the president praised Mandelson’s “beautiful”
accent. “I’d like to have that accent too,” Trump said.
“Thank you,” Mandelson replied. “My mother would be proud.”
But despite the initial bonhomie, the decision to appoint Mandelson has
backfired on Starmer spectacularly. The prime minister has now lost two
senior officials in a week, after his deputy, Angela Rayner, resigned
Friday over her failure to pay enough property tax.
Mandelson’s withdrawal comes just days before Starmer is set to
welcome Trump to the UK for a state visit, which will involve a banquet
at Windsor Castle with King Charles III.
Starmer’s firing of Mandelson over his links to Epstein may make that
visit more uncomfortable, given that Trump is embroiled in his own
scandal over his links to the convicted sex offender.
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