British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has fired the U.K’s ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, over his links to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday fired the country’s ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, over his links to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In a statement in the House of Commons on Thursday, Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty said the decision came in the wake of the publication this week of emails Mandelson sent to Epstein in the 2000s, in which he gave his support to the disgraced financier even when he was facing jail for sex offenses.
Doughty said the emails showed that the “depth and extent” of Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein was “materially different” from what was known when he was appointed ambassador to Washington last year in the wake of the Labour Party’s election victory.
Mandelson, who took up his post in February this year after what the government described as an “extensive” vetting process, has voiced his deep regret over his previous links with Epstein and said he knew nothing about his criminal activities.
“In light of the additional information in the emails written by Peter Mandelson, the prime minister has asked the foreign secretary to withdraw him as ambassador to the United States,” Doughty said.
In particular, he pointed to Mandelson’s suggestion that Epstein’s first conviction in 2008 was “wrongful and should be challenged.
