British Prime Minister Keir Starmer abruptly dismissed the British ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, after the release of e -mails that he had closer tires to convict Pedophiel Jeffrey Epstein than previously known.
The series E -mails, released by Sun Newspaper On Wednesday, Mandelson showed sympathy and support for Epstein in 2008 when he fought against his first conviction to ask for prostitution of a minor.
Mandelson, an old politician and strategist of Labor Party, told Epstein to “fight for early release” in legal appeal before Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in prison. “I think the world of you,” Mandelson told him before he started his punishment.
Peter Mandelson, then the ambassador of the United Kingdom in the United States, who spoke in the British embassy in Washington on 26 February 2025. (Carl Court-Pool/Getty images)
Prince Andrew, Jeffrey Epstein’s friendship fed by ‘money and sex’: author
In a statement in the Lower House on Thursday, Foreign Minister Stephen Doughty that the decision to dismiss Mandelson came after the publication of E -Mails Mandelson to Epstein.
“In the light of the additional information in e -mails written by Peter Mandelson, the Prime Minister asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs to withdraw him as an ambassador,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement.
“The e -mails show that the depth and scope of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is essentially different from that at the time of his agreement,” it added.
The revelations followed last week’s release by Democrats in the US House Oversight Committee of a 2003 birthday album for Epstein. In that album Mandelson referred to Epstein as “My Best Pal” in a handwritten note.
President Donald Trump with the British ambassador in the United States Peter Mandelson after a trade announcement in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 8, 2025. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty images)
Prince Andrew was a ‘bully’ that Royal Staff humiliated during his career: book
In that album, Mandelson mentioned Epstein “My Best Pal” in a handwritten note.
The disclosures called on opposition to action. Conservatives and the Scottish National Party demanded the resignation of Mandelson, while the liberal Democrats drove into an investigation.
Mandelson was one of the key figures behind the revival of the party under Tony Blair.
Peter Mandelson, the ambassador of the United Kingdom in the United States, arrives in the cabinet office in Central London on June 18, 2025. (Jonathan Brady/PA images via Getty images)
Click here to get the Fox News app
In the nineties“ He was central to the Rebranding of Labor as ‘New Labor’, closely with Blair and Gordon Brown. He served in senior cabinet posts, including trade secretary and secretary of Noord -Ireland under Blair and business secretary under Gordon Brown.
He also served as a trading commissioner of the European Union from 2004 to 2008 before he returned later that year to domestic politics such as Lord Mandelson, a spear in the House of Lords.
Mandelson recently visited President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in May during the announcement of a limited trade agreement in the US and UK.
The Associated Press has contributed to this report.
