The United Kingdom has fired Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the United States over his relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has said.
Mandelson, a veteran Labour politician who was key to the party’s success under former leader Tony Blair, came under heavy scrutiny over his relationship with Epstein after a birthday book was released, including a letter purportedly from Mandelson describing Epstein as “my best pal”.
“In light of the additional information in emails written by Peter Mandelson, the prime minister has asked the foreign secretary to withdraw him as ambassador,” the FCDO said on Thursday.
“The emails show that the depth and extent of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment.”
On Wednesday, The Sun newspaper published emails that it said showed Mandelson telling Epstein to “fight for early release” shortly before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
“I think the world of you,” Mandelson told him before he began his sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008.
“I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain,” Mandelson wrote. “You have to be incredibly resilient, fight for early release and be philosophical about it as much as you can.”
The emails were published after the Democrats on the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform released a 50th birthday album compiled in 2003 for Epstein, who at the time was a wealthy and well-connected financier. In that album, Mandelson called Epstein “my best pal” in a handwritten note.
Epstein is believed to have abused hundreds of children during his high-flying career, with charges related to abuse of underage girls dating back to 2006.
The FCDO said the revelation of Mandelson’s suggestion that Epstein’s first conviction was wrongful and should be challenged was “new information”.
Facing questions from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch on Wednesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted “full due process was gone through” in his appointment, the BBC reported.
Still, Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein was public knowledge for years, with Epstein nicknaming him “Petie”.
Mandelson, 71, has twice been forced to resign as a minister over alleged misconduct in 1998 and 2001. Though he made regular comebacks to politics, his tenure was often marred by controversies, including links to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
The tens of thousands of files related to Epstein’s case have meanwhile become a political conundrum for US President Donald Trump, who previously pushed for the release of all files during his re-election campaign amid swirling conspiracy theories about Epstein’s 2019 death by suicide in a New York jail cell.
Trump also faces accusations of penning a birthday letter to the late financier, and was known to socialise with him.
House Democrats released the letter on Monday as part of the birthday album; it contains a sketch of a naked woman with Trump’s signature in place of pubic hair.
The White House has denied the letter’s authenticity, and Trump is separately pursuing a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, which first revealed the letter’s existence in July.
[Aljazeera]
