The Prime Minster would not have appointed Lord Peter Mandelson as US ambassador if he had known the depth of his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a Cabinet minister insisted today.
It comes after allies of the Labour grandee said he admitted in his vetting interview for the diplomat job that he continued his relationship with the paedophile for many years.
Labour backbenchers have expressed anger at Sir Keir’s handling of the row over Lord Mandelson, with dozens reportedly contacting Chief Whip Jonathan Reynolds calling for the peer to be sacked.
Peter Mandelson called Jeffrey Epstein his ‘best pal’ in a birthday message and a photo of himself in a bathrobe with the paedophile billionaire was released
House Oversight Committee
Sir Keir’s critics have also turned their fire on the PM’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney who was instrumental in the appointment.
One Labour MP told the Times it “should have been obvious long before” Thursday that Lord Mandelson had to go, saying: “The real question is whether Keir will sack Morgan McSweeney. Mandelson was McSweeney’s pick, and it’s proved to be a colossal misjudgement.”
Scotland Secretary Douglas Alexander said, “nothing justifies” Lord Mandelson’s appointment “in light of what has now emerged”.
“Many of us were devastated by Angela Rayner’s departure from the Government last week,” he told the BBC on Friday.
“She’s an extraordinary woman who’s overcome the most extraordinary challenges and we are grieving and feel quite acutely that sense of loss.
“Now to have the dismissal of Peter Mandelson just the next week, I totally get it, of course Labour MPs will be despondent that in two weeks in a row we have seen significant resignations from public service.
“These are not the headlines any of us in Government or in Parliament would have chosen or wanted. But the fact is when the evidence emerged, action had to be taken and we are looking forward, therefore, to moving on.”
At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday Sir Keir said he had “full confidence” in Lord Mandelson before the emails were published.
He now faces questions over what he knew and when about the ex-ambassador’s ties to Epstein.
Lord Mandelson reportedly refused to resign and felt let down by Sir Keir’s decision to sack him.
Allies of the peer told the Times he admitted in the vetting process for the ambassador job that he had carried on his relationship with Epstein for many years and deeply regretted doing so.
Asked about what information had emerged during Lord Mandelson’s appointment, Mr Alexander said he was not aware of the details as vetting was “necessarily a secret matter”.
Keir Starmer, left, and his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, right
PA
Lord Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein was known prior to his appointment but reports in The Sun and Bloomberg showed their relationship had continued after the disgraced financiers crimes had emerged.
Emails published on Wednesday afternoon included passages in which Lord Mandelson had told Epstein to “fight for early release” shortly before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
He is also reported to have told Epstein “I think the world of you” the day before the disgraced financier began his sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008.
Arguing that the emails had provided “materially new information” that exposed “manifest weaknesses” in Lord Mandelson’s judgment, Mr Alexander said: “When that reached the Prime Minister‘s desk, he acted and dismissed the ambassador.”
He added that Lord Mandelson’s original appointment had been a “political judgment” that an “unconventional ambassador” was needed to deal with an “unconventional presidential administration” under Donald Trump.
