Lord Mandelson faces scrutiny over his closeness to Jeffrey Epstein after hailing the US financier as his ‘best pal’ and sending photos of himself in a bathrobe and topless.
Grinning in a fluffy white dressing gown, Britain’s ambassador to Washington is seen relaxing with the disgraced billionaire during a Caribbean break. He wrote a fawning handwritten message saying: ‘We love you!’
On another toe-curling page, he says that no matter where Epstein is in the world, he ‘remains my best pal!’
The messages are part of an eye-popping trove of documents made public on Monday night by American lawmakers.
They appear to show gleeful holiday snaps from the ambassador’s visit to Epstein’s private island – dubbed ‘orgy island’ by one of the US paedophile’s sex slaves.
One image shows a topless Lord Mandelson – or ‘Petie’ as Epstein was fond of calling him – wearing swimming shorts and gazing from a balcony window.
The photos were taken some two decades ago and there is no suggestion Lord Mandelson was aware of any of Epstein’s crimes. He has repeatedly expressed his regret at ever having met the American businessman, who was found dead in his cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking children.
Lord Mandelson in a fluffy white dressing gown enjoying a chat with Jeffrey Epstein, from an astonishing new trove of photos released by American lawmakers
Lord Mandelson gazing out of a balcony window in what appears to be Epstein’s house on his private island in the Caribbean
Mandelson ended his missive saying ‘Happy Birthday, Jeffrey. We love you!!’ The ‘birthday book was compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell
The photos were taken before Epstein’s conviction in 2008 for soliciting underage sex.
They were included in a gushing greeting Mandelson penned for Epstein’s 50th birthday for a book compiled by Epstein’s ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell in 2003. She is currently serving a prison sentence for helping Epstein abuse girls.
Her so-called ‘Birthday Book’ is filled with lewd pictures, with many faces blacked out, and messages both handwritten and typed from well-wishers for Epstein’s 50th apparently including from Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. President Trump has denied it is genuine.
But the labour grandee’s description of Epstein as his ‘best pal’ will bring fresh scrutiny to their relationship.
In his greeting, Mandelson describes Epstein in a handwritten note as ‘mysterious’ and ‘an intelligent, sharp-witted man’ who had ‘parachuted into my life’.
He wrote: ‘You would spend many hours just waiting for him to turn up. And often, no sooner were you getting used to loving him around, you would suddenly be alone… again.’
The letter features other photos of Lord Mandelson, where in one he is stood next to two females, with one wearing a white vest and black underwear, in which he writes Epstein would leave ‘you with some “interesting” friends to entertain’.
Lord Mandelson with Jeffrey Epstein on December 12, 2005, where he is seen trying on a belt during a visit to a boutique in the Caribbean
He calls Epstein his ‘best pal’ in the ten-page birthday message to Epstein
The letter features other photos of Lord Mandelson, where in one he is stood next to two females, with one wearing a white vest and black underwear, in which he writes Epstein would leave ‘you with some “interesting” friends to entertain’
Another page from Mandelson’s entry in the ‘Birthday Book’
Lord Mandelson, who was appointed by Sir Keir Starmer as Britain’s Ambassador to the US, is pictured here with Donald Trump in the Oval Office in May 2025
He added: ‘But, wherever he is in the world, he remains my best pal! Happy Birthday, Jeffrey. We love you!!’
Previously a spokesman for Lord Mandelson has said he ‘very much regrets ever having been introduced to Epstein’, adding: ‘This connection has been a matter of public record for some time. He never had any kind of professional or business relationship with Epstein in any form.’
Another intriguing entry in Epstein’s ‘Birthday Book’ is written by one of Epstein’s bikini-clad ‘assistants’ who claims she met Prince Andrew and alleges she was taken into ‘private’ areas of Buckingham Palace and sat on the Queen’s throne.
The woman – whose identity has been blacked out by a censor – said in her glowing tribute to Epstein that he had transformed her life.
A woman listed as a former assistant of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein wrote of meeting the Duke of York and visiting the private quarters of Buckingham Palace
The unidentified woman wrote Epstein transformed her life from a hotel hostess
She told how she visited Buckingham Palace and sat on the Queen’s throne
A birthday letter that US President Donald Trump allegedly wrote to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He denies its veracity
The White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt has described the story as ‘fake news’
According to court document filed in 2023, Epstein and Mandelson had ‘a particularly close friendship’. Mandelson was invited to stay at the convicted paedophile financier’s Manhattan home while he was in jail, and Lord Mandelson also messaged Epstein who referred to him in messages as ‘Petie’.
Both Mandelson and Prince Andrew were in Epstein’s now-notorious ‘little black book’ of contacts. Long-since in the possession of the FBI, it contains ten numbers for Mandelson, including ones marked ‘home’, ‘country’ and ‘Peter’s direct line’.
Ex-President Clinton has long maintained he did not know of the allegations against Epstein.
Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting young girls for Epstein to sexually abuse, compiled the 238-page love-in for the financier’s 50th birthday.
Representatives of the late financier turned over the dossier to Congress as part of the investigation into his crimes.
The existence of the birthday book was first reported in July by The Wall Street Journal.
It has now been made public by the House Oversight Committee.
The British Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lord Mandelson declined to comment on the existence of the letter when it was first reported in July. He has previously expressed regret about his association with the sex offender, saying: ‘I wish I’d never met him.’
