‘Reprehensible’: Epstein scandal spills into London – and claims a top Downing Street scalp

London: The scandal over Jeffrey Epstein has spilled into British politics in a slow-motion drama that has claimed the scalp of an influential Labour insider, Lord Peter Mandelson, over his years of friendship with the late convicted sex offender.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has sacked Mandelson as the country’s ambassador to the United States after days of revelations that showed he maintained his relationship with the disgraced financier even after Epstein’s crimes were exposed.

Starmer concluded that the contact with Epstein was reprehensible – and that the latest revelations showed the friendship was “materially different” to what was known when Mandelson was appointed to the top diplomatic post last year.

Mandelson, a cabinet minister and powerbroker in the Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, has been revealed as an Epstein ally who not only helped his friend win financial deals but stood by him when he was jailed in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

“I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened,” Mandelson wrote in an email to Epstein shortly before he went to prison.

“You have to be incredibly resilient, fight for early release and be philosophical about it as much as you can.”

The emails, revealed this week from a trove of documents being pored over in America, have blown up Labour’s defence of its ultimate insider – a man once called the “prince of darkness” because of his machinations within the party.

Starmer named Mandelson as the British ambassador to Washington only last December, hoping he was the perfect operative to keep US President Donald Trump on side. But the leaked emails made Mandelson’s position untenable, not least because any odour from Epstein is poison for Trump, who has his own problems with the leak of a drawing and birthday greeting to the sex offender he said he never wrote.

Trump arrives in the UK next week for a state visit, including a grand dinner with King Charles at Windsor Castle, an event with Prince William, and a press conference with Starmer at Chequers, the prime minister’s official home. It was unthinkable to have Mandelson anywhere nearby.

On Thursday morning in London, shortly before 8pm in Australia AEST, the government announced that Mandelson would be recalled from his post.

“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 Foreign Office said.

“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.

“In particular, Peter 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.”

Everyone knew that Mandelson had been close to Epstein – and yet Starmer appointed him anyway. This week, however, emails and other documents emerged to show that Mandelson kept the friendship long after he should have cut all ties.

A photograph in a message from Mandelson in the infamous “birthday book” shows Mandelson in a white bathrobe with Epstein, understood to be on the disgraced financier’s private island in the Caribbean.

As a Labour cabinet minister in 2003, Mandelson gushed about the “mysterious” Epstein in the book gift presented on his 50th birthday. “Wherever he is in the world, he remains my best pal!” he wrote, with a drawing of Epstein under a parachute. He added a description of Epstein’s friends: “yum, yum.” This was revealed on Monday night.

One of Epstein’s housekeepers, Cathy Alexander, told the London Telegraph this week that Mandelson had stayed on Epstein’s island with his long-term partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva. The pair met in 1996 and married in 2023.

Some of the revelations have highlighted known facts about Mandelson’s close ties with Epstein before the financier went to prison in 2008. Prosecutors planned to take Epstein to trial on a range of sex charges with a maximum sentence of 10 years, but Epstein pleaded guilty to lesser state charges and served about 18 months. A decade later, he faced further charges, and died in a Manhattan jail by suicide in 2019.

But the scale of Mandelson’s help for his friend has shaken British politics. The Telegraph revealed this week that Mandelson had helped Epstein arrange a deal for JP Morgan – the investment bank that counted Epstein as a lucrative client – to buy a commodities trader owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Mandelson expressed regret about his association with Epstein in interviews this week to control the political damage, but he also acknowledged that more might emerge about their past.

He wrote a note to embassy staff after his removal to emphasise that regret.

“Being ambassador here has been the privilege of my life,” he wrote, in a letter reported by the BBC.

“I continue to feel utterly awful about my association with Epstein 20 years ago and the plight of his victims. I have no alternative to accepting the prime minister’s decision and will leave a position in which I have been so incredibly honoured to serve.”

Starmer defended the Labour ally in parliament as recently as Wednesday, despite demands from Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch to sack the ambassador.

“I have confidence in him,” the prime minister said when facing questions in the House of Commons.

But the political pressure only mounted, and Starmer chose to minimise further damage. When the announcement came, his staff briefed out that he found Mandelson’s messages to Epstein to be “reprehensible”. Now there are questions about why Starmer appointed him in the first place.

The outcome is another blow to the stability of his government, less than one week after Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner quit over concerns she had not paid all the tax she owed on a seaside property purchase.

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