Prime Minister Keir Starmer has acknowledged he was aware that Government officials were investigating new emails concerning Lord Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein before publicly expressing confidence in the former EU commissioner at Prime Minister’s Questions last week, Downing Street said on Monday.
No 10 told MPs and journalists that Mr Starmer was informed officials were probing material that could prove "very embarrassing" about Lord Mandelson and that the Foreign Office had been asked to seek explanations from the British ambassador in Washington. The prime minister said he was not shown the content of the messages before backing Lord Mandelson at PMQs and has since said he would not have appointed him had he known the full extent of the relationship.
The row centres on emails and notes recovered from a long-disused email account and a scrapbook compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell that were first flagged to Lord Mandelson by Bloomberg. The communications include passages in which Lord Mandelson, then a prominent Labour politician and later the UK ambassador to the United States, appears to tell Epstein to "fight for early release" shortly before Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2008, and to describe him as "my best pal" in a handwritten note.
Lord Mandelson was sacked last Thursday after the publication of the messages. The dismissal came a day after Mr Starmer told the Commons he had "full confidence" in the peer. No 10 said Downing Street and Foreign Office figures were made aware of the probe after Bloomberg confronted Lord Mandelson, and that the Foreign Office asked him to respond to questions. Mr Starmer said he received Lord Mandelson's answers to those questions late on Wednesday and found them unsatisfactory; Bloomberg published the emails the same night.
In an interview aired this week, the prime minister said he had "known of his association with Epstein" when he appointed Lord Mandelson to the key diplomatic role in December but that the "nature and extent" of the relationship was "far different to what I'd understood to be the position when I appointed him." He added: "I am angry. I don't particularly think anger helps here, but I feel let down... Information has come to light which had I known it at the time, I wouldn't have appointed him."
Downing Street also confirmed that officials knew Lord Mandelson had stayed at Epstein's house even after Epstein's earlier convictions. Mr Starmer said he had not reviewed the emails himself before publicly supporting his former ally and acknowledged in retrospect that he should have scrutinised the material prior to defending him.
The controversy has drawn swift criticism from opposition politicians and some within Parliament. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called on the prime minister to "come clean" about precisely what he knew and when. Tory grandee Sir David Davis, who was granted an emergency Commons debate on Tuesday by Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle, accused Labour of "obfuscation and delay, by recrimination and cover up." Labour MP Andy McDonald said the episode had shaken public confidence and raised "serious questions for the Prime Minister."
The timing of the revelations has heightened political sensitivity. Labour strategists had hoped that Mr Starmer's media interview would blunt the story ahead of the arrival of former US President Donald Trump for a state visit beginning on Monday evening, but critics said the prime minister's remarks raised further questions about his judgment.
The scandal follows a rocky fortnight for Mr Starmer's government. His so-called "Phase Two" reset was launched as MPs returned from the summer recess with a reshuffle and the appointment of a new chief secretary at No 10. That initiative was disrupted by the resignation of former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner on Sept. 5 after a probe found she had breached the ministerial code, and by subsequent episodes that have left Downing Street dealing with multiple personnel controversies.
Lord Mandelson had told a newspaper last week that more "very embarrassing" details about his friendship with Epstein could emerge; he later said he regretted meeting Epstein. The messages published by Bloomberg and other outlets include exchanges in which Lord Mandelson appears to express strong personal feelings for Epstein and to comment on the legal process surrounding Epstein's conviction.
Mr Starmer has resisted calls to step down and told interviewers he would not resign even if his party's standing failed to improve. The emergency debate on Tuesday offers MPs an early opportunity to press the government for fuller disclosure about what ministers and officials knew, and when.
Downing Street said it would continue to co-operate with any parliamentary inquiries. The Foreign Office has confirmed it is conducting an internal review of the matters raised by the recovered communications, and Lord Mandelson's dismissal remains the immediate ministerial consequence of the revelations.
As the debate approaches, the central questions for Parliament and the public are likely to focus on the sequence of official awareness, the contents of the emails and notes, and whether ministers acted swiftly and transparently once they learned of the material that precipitated Lord Mandelson's removal.