London – Great Britain’s ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, was fired on Thursday after new revelations about his association with Jeffrey Epstein were revealed.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer asked his Ministry of Foreign Affairs to withdraw Mandelson, saying that recently published emails show that the scope of their relationship with the deceased sexual offender who died was greater than what was previously known.
Mandelson, a veteran politician of the Labor Party who was key to His success under former leader Tony Blair, has been subject to scrutiny for his relationship with Epstein after a birthday book was launched, including a letter supposedly from the now ambassador that describes Epstein as “my best friend.”
Starmer had backed Mandelson, who is not a career diplomat and, on the other hand, was named for his political skills and contacts in Washington, a day before, but changed course in the midst of a growing pressure of his party.
“In the light of additional information in the emails written by Peter Mandelson, the prime minister asked the Foreign Secretary to withdraw it as an ambassador,” said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Great Britain in a statement.
“The emails show that the depth and scope of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from the one known at the time of his appointment.”
The Ministry said that the revelation of Mandelson’s suggestion that Epstein’s first condemnation was illicit and that he should be challenged was “new information.”
“In that, and aware of the victims of Epstein’s crimes, he has been withdrawn as an ambassador with immediate effect,” he added in the statement.
In an interview with the Sun newspaper of Great Britain published on Wednesday, Mandelson said he felt a “deep sense of sympathy for those people, those women who suffered as a result of their behavior and illegal criminal activities.”
“I feel a tremendous feeling of repentance not only that I met him in the first place, but I continued the association and took the lies that fed me and many others,” he said, describing Epstein as a “charity charismatic criminal.”
