The British government announced on Thursday that it had fired its ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, after a flurry of newly published emails and other correspondence painted a vivid portrait of his close ties to the financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In a statement, the Foreign Office said, “The emails show that the depth and extent of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment.”
The revelations about Mr. Mandelson, and the fact that the government was caught off guard by them, are a stinging embarrassment to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was already reeling from the resignation last week of his deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, after a tax imbroglio.
It casts a shadow over the planned state visit to Britain next week of President Trump, who has praised Mr. Mandelson and met with him at the White House this week. Mr. Trump’s ties to Mr. Epstein have also come under renewed scrutiny after the release of documents by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.
Mr. Trump has denied drawing and signing a lewd greeting to Mr. Epstein for his 50th birthday, brushing aside questions about his association with Mr. Epstein as a Democratic conspiracy. But the British government has taken the disclosures more seriously, making Mr. Mandelson one of the most prominent political casualties of the Epstein affair.
The government singled out an email from Mr. Mandelson to Mr. Epstein in 2008, in which Mr. Mandelson lamented Mr. Epstein’s conviction for soliciting sex from a minor and gave him advice about his legal troubles.
“I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened,” Mr. Mandelson wrote in an email obtained by Bloomberg News. “I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain.”
Such an expression of solidarity, sent when it was clear that Mr. Epstein was going to serve a prison sentence, made Mr. Mandelson’s position untenable, the Foreign Office made clear in a terse one-paragraph statement.
“Peter Mandelson’s suggestion that Jeffrey Epstein’s first conviction was wrongful and should be challenged is new information,” the statement said. “In light of that, and mindful of the victims of Epstein’s crimes, he has been withdrawn as ambassador with immediate effect.”
Mr. Mandelson’s friendship with Mr. Epstein was no secret. Government officials insisted they had vetted him before announcing his appointment last December. But they were clearly blindsided by newly revealed emails, published by Bloomberg on Wednesday night, in which he stood by Mr. Epstein even after his first conviction of state prostitution crimes in Palm Beach, Fla.
Mr. Epstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex charges, in what was later ruled a suicide. Mr. Starmer had come under mounting pressure from opposition leaders and members of his own Labour Party to respond to the questions about Mr. Mandelson and share details of the government’s vetting.
Mr. Mandelson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. He has long expressed regret for his association with Mr. Epstein and sympathy for his victims.
Speaking to Harry Cole, a journalist for The Sun tabloid, this week, Mr. Mandelson said it was “very embarrassing” to see his words published in a book of birthday greetings to Mr. Epstein. In the book, he called Mr. Epstein his “best pal,” and added a photo of himself clad in a white bathrobe, laughing with Mr. Epstein.
But Mr. Mandelson, 71, noted that the words were written “over 20 years ago.” He said he never witnessed wrongdoing while he was with Mr. Epstein, whom he visited at Mr. Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean.
“I accepted assurances he had given me about his original indictment — the original criminal case in Florida,” Mr. Mandelson said to Mr. Cole. “Like very many people, I took at face value what he said.” He added, “I regret very much that I fell for his lies.”
When Mr. Starmer named Mr. Mandelson as his envoy to Mr. Trump’s Washington, political analysts said it was a bold choice but not without risk. Mr. Mandelson has had a long, checkered career in British politics. He helped craft the New Labour message that propelled Tony Blair into 10 Downing Street in 1997.
But Mr. Mandelson was forced to resign twice from the cabinet, once for failing to disclose a home loan he had taken, and a second time after allegations that he had tried to influence a passport application. (An official inquiry later cleared him of acting improperly over the passport dispute.)
His appointment as ambassador initially drew fierce criticism from allies of Mr. Trump. They pointed to statements he made during the president’s first term when he derided him as a “white nationalist” and a “danger to the world.” Mr. Mandelson apologized for the statements in an interview with Fox News.
He has since revised his characterization, positioning himself as one of the more sympathetic interpreters of Mr. Trump for a skeptical European audience.
“The president may not follow the traditional rulebook or conventional practice,” he said in a lecture last week at the Ditchley Foundation, outside London. “But he is a risk taker in a world where a ‘business as usual’ approach no longer works. Indeed, he seems to have an ironclad stomach for political risk, both at home and abroad.”
Mr. Mandelson made quick inroads after arriving in Washington. He became a fixture in social circles and a regular visitor to the White House. When Mr. Trump announced the outlines of a trade deal with Britain in May, Mr. Mandelson stood behind him in the Oval Office as Mr. Trump spoke by phone to Mr. Starmer.
After Mr. Trump invited him to say a few words, the president told him, “What a beautiful accent.”
Mark Landler is the London bureau chief of The Times, covering the United Kingdom, as well as American foreign policy in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He has been a journalist for more than three decades.
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