UK PM Fires Peter Mandelson As Envoy To US After Epstein Emails

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer fired Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to Washington, following revelations about the extent of his relationship to late pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. 

The removal of the UK’s top diplomat in the US was announced in the House of Commons on Thursday, hours after Bloomberg detailed more than 100 previously unreported emails between Epstein and Mandelson that cast new light on the relationship between the two men. In one sent the day before Epstein reported to a Florida jail in June 2008 to begin serving time for soliciting sex from a minor, Mandelson wrote: “I think the world of you” and offered to discuss the financier’s case with his contacts. Mandelson didn’t respond to questions from Bloomberg.

UK officials said the emails — particularly Mandelson’s suggestion that Epstein’s first conviction was wrongful and should be challenged — prompted Starmer to re-evaluate his December decision to send Mandelson to Washington. “In light of that, and mindful of the victims of Epstein’s crimes, he has been withdrawn as ambassador with immediate effect,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.

Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty made clear in remarks to the Commons that Mandelson was being removed at Starmer’s behest.

“It’s self-evident that he found the content of those emails reprehensible,” Starmer’s spokesman, Tom Wells, told reporters on Thursday when repeatedly asked what the premier had thought of Mandelson’s missives to Epstein. He refused to say whether the premier had asked Mandelson what he was referring to when, prior to Bloomberg’s story, he told the Sun that he had “no doubt” more correspondence between him and Epstein would “come out” that was “very embarrassing.”

Calls for Mandelson’s removal had been growing since Monday, when it was revealed that he had called Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019, his “best pal.” That remark was part of a collection of tributes to the sex trafficker — the so-called birthday book — obtained by congressional Democrats as part of an investigation into Epstein’s past connections to the rich and powerful, including US President Donald Trump. 

Starmer’s decision to oust Mandelson now plunges his government into the middle of one of America’s most fraught political controversies. The move also shines a spotlight on Trump’s own past relations with Epstein, including questions over a sexually suggestive missive attributed to him in the same birthday book.

Trump has denied composing the message to Epstein — which was written into the drawn outline of a naked woman’s torso — and White House deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich on Monday said the image is fabricated. 

Trump is due to arrive in the UK next week for a second state visit, a rare honor orchestrated by Starmer and Mandelson in a bid to curry favor with the American president. Mandelson would have been expected to play a role in public events surrounding that, including a state banquet hosted by King Charles III.

“Next week is going to be the state visit. This is huge turmoil ahead of it,” Tory shadow minister Neil O’Brien told Doughty in the Commons on Thursday. “I cannot believe that the government have put our monarch in this terrible position.”

“You’ve put our ambassador to Washington at the middle of the biggest scandal in Washington,” O’Brien continued.

Attention will now turn to whether Starmer appoints a new ambassador before Trump’s arrival on British soil for the Sept. 17-19 state visit. Mandelson’s predecessor, Karen Pierce, a career diplomat who enjoyed a warm relationship with Trump’s administration during his first term of office, will be among the favorites. James Roscoe, the UK’s Charge d’Affaires to the US, will serve as interim ambassador until a permanent appointment is made.

Starmer’s decision to fire Mandelson comes a day after the premier told the House of Commons: “I have confidence in the ambassador in the role he is doing,” during sustained questioning by opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch. “This is about judgment,” she told the premier. 

While Starmer’s words in the Commons came before Bloomberg published excerpts of the emails between Mandelson and Epstein, he also suggested Mandelson had been properly vetted, saying “full due process was gone through in relation to this appointment.”

A UK official said the email exchange between Mandelson and Epstein was not available to the government when the envoy was appointed. They added that Mandelson also didn’t have access to the missives, which stemmed from a long-closed email account. Overnight, Starmer had examined the emails, deciding early Thursday in a meeting with Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and other officials that Mandelson had to go, the person said.

Also overnight, a trickle of Labour Members of Parliament had begun to call for Mandelson’s departure. “To have sympathy for Jeffrey Epstein shows a colossal loss of judgment, and Peter Mandelson has to quit or be fired,” Labour MP Andy McDonald wrote on X. Another, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, called for the Prime Minister’s ethics adviser to launch an investigation into Mandelson’s links with Epstein. 

In the emails obtained by Bloomberg, Mandelson showed his American friend steadfast support, and suggested fighting back. He also offered to discuss Epstein’s legal plight with one or more of his contacts.

Bloomberg sent Mandelson a detailed letter outlining the emails on Monday. Mandelson acknowledged receipt of Bloomberg’s questions but has not responded to them. In an interview with The Sun newspaper on Wednesday, he said “I regret very, very deeply indeed carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done and I regret very much that I fell for his lies.”