Lord Mandelson was sacked as US ambassador today after emails showed that he had urged Jeffrey Epstein to ‘fight for early release’.
Keir Starmer acted after another devastating cache of messages emerged from the now-US ambassador to the disgraced financier.
The dramatic departure risks throwing the government deeper into chaos, coming just a week before Donald Trump’s state visit.
Criticisms will now turn to Sir Keir’s judgment, with MPs warning the party is ‘stained at the very top’. Bloomberg News said details of the newly-uncovered emails had been sent to Lord Mandelson for comment on Monday, raising questions about why the premier continued to voice ‘full confidence’ in him yesterday.
Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty told MPs this morning that it was now clear Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein was ‘materially different’ than had been known when he was appointed.
In a grim sign for the peer, Home Office minister Mike Tapp offered only lukewarm support as he toured broadcast studios this morning.
He said Lord Mandelson would still be in post for Donald Trump’s state visit next week ‘as far as I know’.
The ambassador has been facing demands to appear before MPs to explain his behaviour towards Epstein, and there are calls for a probe into his vetting process.
In the bombshell new emails, Lord Mandelson told his ‘best pal’ Epstein just before the twisted financier was convicted for preying on children in 2008: ‘Everything can be turned into an opportunity.’
The Labour peer – who sent Epstein photos of himself topless in a toe-curling birthday greeting in 2003 – suggested his legal troubles ‘just could not happen in Britain’.
And he told the billionaire – found dead in his cell in 2019 awaiting trial for molesting hundreds of schoolgirls – that ‘I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened.’
There is alarm that the King will have to line up alongside Lord Mandelson, who has voiced regret about being taken in by Epstein, at the state visit by Mr Trump.
The damning emails, sent between Epstein and Lord Mandelson’s private account, appear to suggest the peer coached his friend through his ‘years of torture’ over teen sex allegations.
Lord Mandelson – who once infamously declared himself ‘intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich’ – in a fluffy white dressing gown enjoying a chat with Jeffrey Epstein
Lord Mandelson, who was appointed by Sir Keir Starmer as Britain’s Ambassador to the US, is pictured here with Donald Trump in the Oval Office in May 2025
Criticisms are increasingly being levelled at Sir Keir’s judgment, with MPs warning the party is ‘stained at the very top’
Left-wing Labour MP Clive Lewis posted on X that Lord Mandelson ‘isn’t an outlier – he’s the embodiment of the rot at the heart of modern politics’
Mutinous Labour MPs including Richard Burgon and Nadia Whittome called on Sir Keir to sack Lord Mandelson, 71.
Backbencher Andy McDonald said there is ‘widespread revulsion’ in the party.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: ‘He should go immediately, his position is completely and utterly untenable and him staying on in post is causing the Government and the Labour Party further damage.
‘I’m afraid if he doesn’t do the right thing and resign today then the Prime Minister should sack him.’
Mr McDonald, asked how other Labour MPs are feeling, said: ‘It’s 100 per cent, people have got their heads in their hands over this and I haven’t spoken to anybody who is offering any glimmer of support for Peter Mandelson.
‘It is widespread revulsion that we, by association, being in the same party, are being brought under the microscope for something that he has done.
‘He’s got to take responsibility for his actions and bring this to a close. There isn’t anybody in the Labour Party who is supporting Peter Mandelson today and the Prime Minister’s got to hear that and understand that he’ll weaken his position if he continues to support him.’
Left-wing Labour MP Clive Lewis posted on X that Lord Mandelson ‘isn’t an outlier – he’s the embodiment of the rot at the heart of modern politics’.
Women who were sex slaves of Epstein have also called for him to go. Spencer Kuvin, a lawyer representing victims, said: ‘The man is disgusting for his clear close friendship with a paedophile.
‘He should be investigated himself instead of being promoted to a government position.’ Lisa Bloom, another victims’ lawyer, said simply: ‘Truly appalling.’
Mr Tapp said any dealings with ‘vile’ paedophile Jeffrey Epstein were ‘more than unfortunate’.
Asked whether Lord Mandelson would still be in post when Mr Trump arrives in the UK, Home Office minister Mr Tapp told Times Radio: ‘As far as I know. The Prime Minister has said what he said in the Chamber yesterday.’
In the Commons on Wednesday Sir Keir Starmer said of Lord Mandelson: ‘I have confidence in him, and he is playing an important role in the UK-US relationship.’
Mr Tapp said Lord Mandelson had been clear ‘he regrets those dealings with Jeffrey Epstein and I think that’s important to note’.
He told Times Radio: ‘I think the man, Jeffrey Epstein, is vile and I think any dealings with him from anybody in the past is more than unfortunate.’
Mr Tapp said he ‘could not say’ whether the ambassador’s status could change during today.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘The latest I have is that the statement made in the Commons yesterday at Prime Minister’s Questions is still relevant, and Keir Starmer does have confidence in the ambassador’s ability.
‘And what he means there is the important work that he’s doing in America.’
Pressed if that situation would continue, Mr Tapp said: ‘I can’t say. I’m not the Prime Minister.’
Home Office minister Mike Tapp offered only lukewarm support as he toured broadcast studios this morning. He said Lord Mandelson would still be in post for Donald Trump’s state visit next week ‘as far as I know’
Mandelson’s message in the ‘birthday book’ compiled by Ghislaine Maxwell said Epstein was ‘my best pal!’
Lord Mandelson with Jeffrey Epstein on December 12, 2005, where he is seen trying on a belt during a visit to a boutique in the Caribbean
Mandelson and a friend enjoy a boat ride together as guests of Epstein
Mrs Badenoch said: ‘Mandelson’s position is untenable. Why did Starmer defend him today? How was ‘full due process’ followed? This is a weak Prime Minister, leading a Government mired in scandal.’
Former Tory cabinet minister Sir Gavin Williamson told the Mail: ‘It is not sustainable or proper to put the King in the embarrassing position of being forced to stand alongside someone with such dark clouds hanging over them.
‘We now risk a state visit where the biggest story is going to be the British ambassador’s relationship with a notorious paedophile.’
Lord Mandelson carried on their friendship for at least another four years, and admitted for the first time yesterday he had maintained his association ‘far longer than I should have done’.
The emails, details of which also appeared in The Sun and were said to have been ‘circulating in Washington DC’, were sent in June 2008.
Mandelson – or ‘Petie’ as Epstein affectionately called him – wrote: ‘I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened.’
The previous month, Epstein had been given an ultimatum by prosecutors to finalise a plea deal or face potentially decades in jail. On June 30, he admitted in a Florida court two counts of soliciting children for sex, and was later sentenced to 18 months.
On the podcast Harry Cole Saves the West, Lord Mandelson said: ‘Like many, many people, I took at face value what he said. He is a charismatic criminal liar, we now see.’
Lord Mandelson, who flew on Epstein’s private jet – dubbed the ‘Lolita Express’ – and stayed at his Caribbean hideaway known as ‘orgy island’ claimed Epstein had never offered ‘any introductions to women… perhaps because I am a gay man’.
He told the podcast further ‘very embarrassing’ emails were yet to be made public.
The latest furore erupted on Monday when US lawmakers released a 238-page album compiled by Epstein’s socialite girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell for his 50th birthday in 2003.
In it was a fawning ten-page handwritten greeting from Lord Mandelson with holiday snaps from his 2002 trip to Epstein’s island. One showed him wearing a white dressing gown chatting to Epstein and saying he was ‘my best pal’.
No 10 said that Lord Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein was ‘a matter of public record’ before his appointment.
