British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he has “confidence” in the country’s ambassador to the United States following mounting criticism of his links to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein
ByPAN PYLAS Associated PressSeptember 10, 2025, 10:03 AM
1:56FILE - Britain's Ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, speaks during a reception at the ambassador's residence on Feb. 26, 2025 in Washington. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP, File)The Associated PressLONDON -- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Wednesday that he has “confidence” in the country's ambassador to the United States, who faces mounting criticism of his links to the convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Starmer's defense of Peter Mandelson came after Democrats on the House Oversight Committee 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 — in a handwritten note — called Epstein “my best pal.”
Other alleged contributors to the album that was compiled by British convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell were President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton and attorney Alan Dershowitz in a “friends” section, and included other letters with sexually provocative language.
Mandelson, who took on the prestigious diplomatic role earlier this year in the wake of the Labour Party's election victory in July 2024, has admitted knowing Epstein well and told The Sun newspaper that the comments he wrote were “very embarrassing to see and to read.”
Insisting that he has a “tremendous sense, a profound sense of sympathy" for Epstein's victims, Mandelson said his comments were written before Epstein was indicted and that he did not he a business relationship with him.
Epstein took his own life in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, more than a decade after his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
“I never saw any evidence of criminal activity,” he said. “Perhaps it’s because I’m a gay man, perhaps when I knew him, perhaps when I was associated with him those years ago, as I did with my then partner and now husband, we never, ever saw any evidence or sign of this activity, which has since come to light."
The revelations about Mandelson's links with Epstein prompted Kemi Badenoch, leader of the main opposition Conservative Party, to ask Starmer whether the position of the U.S. ambassador was "tenable."
Starmer said Mandelson, 71, has “repeatedly expressed his deep regret” for his association with Epstein.
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A skilled political operator, Mandelson is no stranger to controversy, hing twice resigned from former Prime Minister Tony Blair's government in 1998 and 2001. He subsequently became a European Commissioner for trade, before returning to frontline British politics in 2008 to serve under Blair's successor, Gordon Brown.
Starmer considers Mandelson's trade expertise as vital in helping to limit the scale of tariffs imposed on the import of British goods into the U.S.
Starmer’s office insisted that all due process was followed in appointing Mandelson. Spokesman De Pares said the ambassador had gone through “extensive vetting and background checks."
For a prime minister who has had a bruising week after the resignation of his deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, over a tax dispute, the Mandelson distraction is unwelcome.
Mandelson has indicated that further embarrassing revelations are likely to emerge in the coming weeks.
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