British Prime Minister Keir Starmer abruptly fired UK Ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson Thursday after newly released emails revealed he maintained close ties to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The dismissal came after emails that were published on Wednesday showing Mandelson expressing sympathy and support for Epstein during his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty announced the firing in the House of Commons Thursday.
“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,” Doughty 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 In light of that, and mindful of the victims of Epstein’s crimes he has been withdrawn as Ambassador with immediate effect.”
The 2008 emails showed Mandelson encouraging Epstein to “fight for early release” as the disgraced financier faced an 18-month prison sentence. Epstein ultimately served just 13 months, much of it on work release.
“I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened,” Mandelson wrote to Epstein in June 2008. “I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain.”
“You have to be incredibly resilient, fight for early release and be philosophical about it as much as you can,” Mandelson said, according to the released emails. “The whole thing has been years of torture and now you have to show the world how big a person you are, and how strong.”
“Your friends stay with you and love you,” he added.
The message was sent the day before Epstein reported to prison in Palm Beach, Florida.
Mandelson and Epstein exchanged more than 100 emails between 2005 and 2010, according to reports, where among other issues they discussed traveling to Epstein’s secretive Caribbean island, where authorities allege he sex-trafficked scores of underage girls.
“When are you going to the island at Xmas?” Mandelson wrote in October 2005. “I am having trouble getting air tickets to st barts and was wondering about going via US, NY or Miami.”
“What are your plans and do I fit in to them?” he asked.
Epstein replied that he would be going there in December and offered: “I can pay for your tickets if needed.”
The revelations followed last week’s release by House Oversight Committee Democrats of Epstein’s 2003 birthday album. In that collection, Mandelson referred to Epstein as “my best pal” in a handwritten note accompanied by a photograph of Mandelson in a bathrobe laughing with Epstein.
The birthday book also contained controversial contributions allegedly from President Donald Trump and former President Bill Clinton. The White House has forcefully denied Trump wrote his alleged note.
Mandelson, 71, was a key liberal architect of the Labour Party’s transformation under Tony Blair in the 1990s. He helped rebrand Labour as “New Labour,” working closely with Blair and Gordon Brown to modernize the party and win three consecutive general elections.
He served in senior Cabinet positions including trade secretary and Northern Ireland secretary under Blair, and business secretary under Gordon Brown. From 2004 to 2008, he served as the European Union’s trade commissioner before returning to domestic politics as a life peer in the House of Lords.
Epstein was charged with federal child sex crimes in 2019 but died under mysterious circumstances in his Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial.