{"id":414152,"date":"2025-09-10T21:39:20","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T21:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/414152\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T21:39:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T21:39:20","slug":"your-friends-love-you-uk-ambassador-mandelson-told-epstein-after-charges-emails-show-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/414152\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Your friends love you,\u2019 UK ambassador Mandelson told Epstein after charges, emails show \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United Kingdom\u2019s<\/a> ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson<\/a>, told Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> to \u201cfight for early release\u201d, according to leaked emails.<\/p>\n

He also allegedly wrote \u201cYour friends stay with you and love you\u201d when the disgraced financier was facing charges of procuring a child for prostitution.<\/p>\n

The emails, first published by the Sun after circulating in Washington DC, will put further pressure on Mr Mandelson after he admitted on Tuesday that more \u201cvery embarrassing\u201d details of his friendship with Epstein were likely to emerge but insisted he had never seen any \u201cwrongdoing\u201d.<\/p>\n

In an email from June 2008, which was not disputed by his spokesperson, Mr Mandelson wrote to Epstein: \u201cI think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain. You have to be incredibly resilient, fight for early release and be philosophical about it as much as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

It continued: \u201cEverything can be turned into an opportunity and that you will come through it and be stronger for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AnAn extract from the 50th birthday album compiled in 2003 for Jeffrey Epstein, contributed by Peter Mandelson, which shows an image of the two together along with the message ‘But, wherever he is in the world, he remains my best pal!’ Photograph: US Committee on Oversight and Government Reform\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

The friendship between the two men has come back into the spotlight after Democratic members<\/a> of the US House oversight committee released Epstein\u2019s 50th \u201cbirthday book\u201d, in which Mr Mandelson called him \u201cmy best pal\u201d in a handwritten note.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump<\/a>, the US president, is also under scrutiny over his relationship with Epstein, having also allegedly contributed to his 50th birthday book \u2013 although he has denied the authenticity of the letter and dismissed it as a fake.<\/p>\n

The Telegraph reported that when Mr Mandelson was UK business secretary in 2010, and after the financier\u2019s release from jail, he allowed Epstein to help broker a deal for JP Morgan<\/a> to buy part of a commodities firm from the UK government-owned RBS bank. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Trump calls release of suggestive note to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein a \u2018dead issue\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Mr Mandelson served as secretary of state for Northern Ireland from 1999 to 2001.<\/p>\n

No 10 stood firmly behind Mr Mandelson on Wednesday, saying he had been fully security-checked before taking up the role and was the right person for the job.<\/p>\n

However, the new emails are likely to raise further questions about whether the prime minister knew the full extent of Mr Mandelson\u2019s support for Epstein when he appointed him US ambassador earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The Conservatives have called for Mr Mandelson to be sacked and the Liberal Democrats have demanded an investigation by the civil service commissioner into whether the diplomatic service code has been broken.<\/p>\n

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said they were \u201csickening revelations\u201d and that Mr Mandelson\u2019s position is untenable.<\/p>\n

A number of Labour MPs are privately furious about prime minister Keir Starmer\u2019s<\/a> judgment in appointing Mr Mandelson to the job, knowing that he kept up his association with Epstein after the businessman had served a jail term, which ended in 2009, for soliciting girls under 14.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Democrats rekindle Trump\u2019s Epstein problem with \u2018birthday note\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

One MP said No 10 had appeared to view the scandal around Epstein and Mr Mandelson as \u201ca silly internet conspiracy\u201d rather than taking it seriously, while another said the \u201cboys\u2019 club\u201d in Downing Street had rallied round him without considering the consequences.<\/p>\n

Two Labour MPs, Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Kim Johnson, called for Mr Mandelson to quit.<\/p>\n

Mr Mandelson has previously claimed not to have had a business relationship with Epstein and told the FT to \u201cf**k off\u201d when it questioned him about the financier.<\/p>\n

However, in an interview earlier this week with the Sun, he said he had been deceived by Epstein\u2019s \u201clies\u201d and described the scandal as \u201clike an albatross around my neck\u201d. Epstein killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting further charges of trafficking young girls.<\/p>\n

\"BritishBritish ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson and UK prime minister Keir Starmer during a welcome reception at the ambassador’s residence in Washington, DC, earlier this year. Photograph: Carl Court\/PA Wire \"PeterPeter Mandelson pictured in October 1999 when making his first keynote address as the new Northern Ireland secretary. Photograph: Paul Faith\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

At prime minister\u2019s questions, Mr Starmer said \u201cfull due process was gone through when the appointment was made\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Starmer described Epstein as a \u201cdespicable criminal who committed the most heinous crimes and destroyed the lives of so many women and girls\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ambassador has repeatedly expressed his deep regret for his association with him … I have confidence in him,\u201d the prime minister said. \u2013 Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United Kingdom\u2019s ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, told Jeffrey Epstein to \u201cfight for early release\u201d,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,6906,32,393,4884,2204,99667,807,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-414152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-democratic-party","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-jeffrey-epstein","15":"tag-jp-morgan-chase","16":"tag-keir-starmer","17":"tag-northern-ireland","18":"tag-scotland","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom","21":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115182172236477474","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}