Lord Peter Mandelson has refused to apologise to Jeffrey Epstein‘s victims for remaining friends with the notorious paedophile after his conviction for sex crimes.
The Labour peer, who was sacked as the UK’s ambassador to the US last year over his ties to Epstein, distanced himself from the depravity of the ‘evil monster’.
In his first TV interview since being fired from his diplomatic role, Lord Mandelson blamed ‘misplaced loyalty’ for continuing his association with the financier.
He said he ‘never saw anything’ that would lead him to suspect Epstein was ‘preying on these young women’.
The former Cabinet minister suggested because he was a gay man in Epstein’s circle, he was ‘kept separate from what he was doing in the sexual side of his life’.
Appearing on the BBC‘s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg show, Lord Mandelson was asked if he wanted to apologise to Epstein’s victims for staying in touch with the paedophile even after his original conviction.
‘I want to apologise to those women for a system that refused to hear their voices and did not give them the protection they were entitled to expect,’ he replied.
‘That system gave him protection and not them. If I had known, if I was in any way complicit or culpable, of course I would apologise for it.’
Lord Peter Mandelson has refused to apologise to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims for remaining friends with the notorious paedophile after his conviction for sex crimes
In his first TV interview since being fired as US ambassador, Lord Mandelson blamed ‘misplaced loyalty’ for continuing his association with the financier
Lord Mandelson added: ‘But I was not culpable, I was not knowledgeable of what he was doing.
‘And I regret and will regret to my dying day the fact that powerless women, women who were denied a voice, were not given the protection they were entitled to expect from the American system.’
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution and soliciting a minor.
Emails published in September last year showed Lord Mandelson sent supportive messages to Epstein as he faced jail for sex crimes.
Sir Keir Starmer, who handpicked Lord Mandelson as US ambassador before going on to sack him, said the emails showed ‘the depth and extent’ his relationship with Epstein was ‘materially different from that known at the time of his appointment’.
The Prime Minister had defended Lord Mandelson until the emergence of the emails.
In the BBC inteview, Lord Mandelson said the ‘awful toe-curling messages and emails’ he sent were ‘very embarrassing and just make me distraught.
But he added he was ‘at the edge of this man’s life’.
‘I never saw anything in his life when I was with him, when I was in his homes, that would give me any reason to suspect what this evil monster was doing in preying on these young women,’ he continued.
Asked if he deserved to be sacked by Sir Keir, Lord Mandelson said: ‘I understand why I was sacked.’
He added: ‘I understand why he took the decision he did. But one thing I’m very clear about is I’m not going to seek to reopen or relitigate this issue. I’m moving on.’
The Labour peer was last year sacked by Sir Keir Starmer as the UK’s ambassador to the US over his ties to Epstein
Lord Mandelson, pictured with Donald Trump in May last year, said his ‘misplaced loyalty’ to Epstein had ‘the most calamitous consequences’
Emails showed Lord Mandelson told Epstein to ‘fight for early release’ shortly before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
He is also reported to have told Epstein ‘I think the world of you’ the day before the disgraced financier began his jail sentence.
Asked why he had stuck with Epstein, Lord Mandelson said: ‘It was a most terrible mistake on my part.
‘I believed the story he told in 2008 in his first indictment in Florida, I accepted his story, and I wish I hadn’t.
‘I gave my support to somebody because I believed what he was telling me, and it was misplaced loyalty, but I just have to say this to you: while it’s had the most calamitous consequences for me, the crux of this is not me.
‘The crux of this is not the friendship I had 25 years ago with Jeffrey Epstein. The crux of this is that so many hundreds of young women were completely trapped, powerless in a system that did not listen to what they had to say.’
Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan, New York, in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
