LONDON — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief of staff resigned Sunday over the furor surrounding the appointment of Peter Mandelson as the U.K. ambassador to the U.S. despite his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Morgan McSweeney said he took responsibility for advising Starmer to appoint Mandelson, 72, to Britain’s most important diplomatic post in 2024.
“The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself,” McSweeney said in a statement. “When asked, I advised the Prime Minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice.”
Starmer is facing a political storm and questions about his judgment after newly published documents, part of a huge trove of Epstein files made public in the United States, suggested that Mandelson sent market-sensitive information to the convicted sex offender when he was the U.K. government’s business secretary during the 2008 financial crisis.
Starmer’s government has promised to release its own emails and other documentation related to Mandelson’s appointment, which it says will show that Mandelson misled officials.
The prime minister apologized last week for “having believed Mandelson’s lies.”
He acknowledged that when Mandelson was chosen for the top diplomatic job in 2024, the vetting process had revealed that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein continued after the latter’s 2008 conviction. But Starmer maintained that “none of us knew the depth of the darkness” of that relationship at the time.
A number of lawmakers said Starmer is ultimately responsible for the scandal.
“Keir Starmer has to take responsibility for his own terrible decisions,” said Kemi Badenoch, leader of the opposition Conservative Party.
Mandelson, a former Cabinet minister, ambassador and elder statesman of the governing Labor Party, has not been arrested or charged.
Metropolitan Police officers searched Mandelson’s London home and another property linked to him on Friday. Police said the investigation is complex and will require “a significant amount of further evidence gathering and analysis.”
The U.K. police investigation centers on potential misconduct in public office, and Mandelson is not accused of any sexual offenses.
Starmer had fired Mandelson in September from his ambassadorial job over earlier revelations about his Epstein ties. But critics say the emails recently published by the U.S. Justice Department have brought serious concerns about Starmer’s judgment to the fore. They argue that he should have known better than to appoint Mandelson in the first place.
The new revelations include documents suggesting Mandelson shared sensitive government information with Epstein after the 2008 global financial crisis. They also include records of payments totaling $75,000 in 2003 and 2004 from Epstein to accounts linked to Mandelson or his husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva.
Aside from his association with Epstein, Mandelson previously had to resign twice from senior government posts because of scandals over money or ethics.
Starmer had faced growing pressure over the last week to fire McSweeney, who is regarded as a key advisor in Downing Street and seen as a close ally of Mandelson.
Starmer on Sunday credited McSweeney as a central figure in running Labor’s recent election campaign and the party’s landslide victory. His statement did not mention the Mandelson scandal.
Hui writes for the Associated Press.
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