Sir Keir Starmer was on the rack on Monday night over why he kept faith with Peter Mandelson even while his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was being investigated by Government officials.
On Monday, it emerged the Prime Minister was aware damning emails between Lord Mandelson and the paedophile existed when backing him in the Commons.
After days of silence, Sir Keir finally broke cover in an interview in which he insisted he would never have appointed the controversial peer as US ambassador if he had known the full truth about his friendship with Epstein.
Labour strategists hoped the interview would help clear the air and prevent it overshadowing the visit of Donald Trump, who arrives for the start of his second state visit tonight.
But critics said it only raised more questions than it answered about the PM’s judgment.
And he faces further painful scrutiny on Tuesday after the Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle granted a Tory request for an emergency Commons debate on the scandal.
On Monday, No 10 said Sir Keir, prior to his backing of Lord Mandelson in the Commons last week, was aware that his man in Washington was warning of more ‘very embarrassing’ revelations to come about his relationship with Epstein and that the Foreign Office was investigating new emails.
However, the former director of public prosecutions, with a reputation for being ‘forensic’, did not know or ask about the content of the emails before his appearance at PMQs. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said it was time for the PM to ‘come clean’ about exactly what he knew about Lord Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein – and why he continued to defend him.
Sir Keir Starmer was on the rack on Monday night over why he kept faith with Peter Mandelson even while his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was being investigated
Pictured: Lord Mandelson (left) in a fluffy white dressing gown enjoying a chat with Epstein (right)
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
Tory grandee Sir David Davis, who was granted Tuesday’s debate, said Labour’s explanations for the scandal had been ‘marked by obfuscation and delay, by recrimination and cover up’.
Lord Mandelson was finally sacked by Sir Keir last Thursday after emails emerged in which he appeared to question Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor and urged him to fight for early release.
The previous day the PM had backed him at Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons, saying he had ‘full confidence’ in the disgraced peer.
The emails, recovered from a long disused email account, were put to Lord Mandelson on Monday last week by the Bloomberg news agency.
No 10 said the Foreign Office was informed the following day and asked Lord Mandelson to respond. Figures in Downing Street were also made aware.
The emails showed he told Epstein to ‘fight for early release’ shortly before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
He also told Epstein ‘I think the world of you’ the day before the New York financier began his sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008.
In an interview aired on Wednesday morning, the then-ambassador said there were further ‘very embarrassing’ details to emerge about his friendship with Epstein, who he now says he wishes he had never met.
But No 10 insisted the PM had not been informed about the ‘content’ of the emails being investigated by the Foreign Office – despite the alarm bells triggered elsewhere in Government by Lord Mandelson’s comments.
It was ‘Wednesday evening, late’ that Sir Keir says he was given Lord Mandelson’s answers to the Foreign Office questions and ‘did not find them at all satisfying’. Having waited several days for its own response it was also Wednesday night that Bloomberg published the fatal emails for the world to read.
Mandelson’s message in the ‘birthday book’ compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell said Epstein was ‘my best pal!’
The PM last night confirmed that he ‘knew of his association with Epstein’ when he appointed Lord Mandelson to the key diplomatic role last December. No 10 confirmed that the PM was aware that the Labour peer had stayed at Epstein’s house even after he had been jailed.
But Sir Keir claimed the ‘nature and extent’ of their relationship was ‘far different to what I’d understood to be the position when I appointed him’. The PM said he felt ‘let down’ by Lord Mandelson, telling Channel Four News: ‘I am angry. I don’t particularly think anger helps here, but I feel let down. I feel that the process was gone through and now information has come to light which had I known it at the time, I wouldn’t have appointed him.’
He said he had decided to back Lord Mandelson last Wednesday because officials were still waiting for an explanation for the emails. But he acknowledged that ‘in retrospect it would have been better’ if he had reviewed the contents of the emails himself before backing his former ally so publicly.
Last night the clamour for answers continued. Labour MP Andy McDonald said: ‘The appointment of Peter Mandelson in the first place, knowing what was already known, raised a big question mark about judgment, but events as they unfolded last week have shaken people’s trust and confidence and there are serious questions for the Prime Minister.’
As speculation swirled about his own future, Sir Keir also insisted he will not resign even if his party’s standing against Reform fails to improve.
