UK Fires Ambassador to US Over Epstein Links

Epstein took his own life in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, more than a decade after his initial conviction.

“I think the world of you,” Mandelson reportedly told him before he began his sentence in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Mandelson’s links to Epstein came under scrutiny after the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a 50th birthday album compiled in 2003 for Epstein that purportedly included a note from U.S. President Donald Trump. In that album, Mandelson called Epstein “my best pal.”

Following Rayner’s resignation, Starmer carried out a major reshuffle, a forced government reboot after a rocky 14 months in office that have seen his popularity plunge.

Starmer now faces questions over his appointment of Mandelson, who is no stranger to controversy, having twice resigned from former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government in 1998 and 2001.

After his second resignation from Blair’s government, Mandelson became a European Commissioner when Britain was still in the European Union, before returning to front line British politics in 2008 to serve under Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown.

The Mandelson brief

Mandelson’s trade expertise was considered a major asset in trying to persuade the Trump administration not to slap heavy tariffs on British goods, and seemed to pay off when the countries struck a trade deal in May, though some details of the agreement have yet to be finalized.

He is also a skilled -– critics say ruthless -– political operator whose mastery of political intrigue earned him the nickname “Prince of Darkness.”

It’s rare for a politician, rather than a career civil servant, to be given a key U.K. ambassadorial post. Mandelson was not an obvious choice as emissary to the Trump administration: he once called Trump a “danger to the world,” words he later said were “ill-judged and wrong.”