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Starmer: ‘None of us knew depth and darkness of Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein’
Starmer has addressed the fallout from the Epstein scandal during a speech this morning in Hasting, East Sussex. He said that while Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein was publicly known, “none of us knew the depth and darkness” of it.
He said:
Serious allegations and serious evidence has emerged concerning Mandelson’s conduct, including his relationship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender. It had been publicly known for some time that Mandelson knew Epstein, but none of us knew the depth or the darkness of that relationship. Information that was not known at the time of his appointment [as US ambassador].
He apologised to Epstein’s victims, saying:
“I want to say this. I am sorry, sorry for what was done to you, sorry that so many people with power failed you. Sorry for having believed Mandelson’s lies and appointed him and sorry that even now you’re forced to watch this story unfold in public once again.
Key events
Starmer is now taking questions and tells the BBC’s Chris Mason that he regrets the decision to have appointed Mandelson as an ambassador.
He said: “What I meant was it has been known publicly for some time that they knew each other and that is precisely why … we asked questions about the nature and extent of that relationship.
“What I didn’t say yesterday – partly inhibited by the approach of the police – is that is precisely why those questions were asked.”
He added: “I regret making the decision to have appointed him in the first place. Had I known at the time what I know now, or I knew in September, I’d have never done it.”
Questioned about his own future as prime minister, he says: “We’re moving forward as a country.”
Starmer: ‘I understand the strength of public feeling’
Starmer said he wanted to release the files relating to his appointment of Mandelson yesterday and to talk about it at PMQs, but police advised that doing so could risk prejudicing a future investigation or legal process.
He said:
I understand the strength of public feeling, I share the anger that people feel when powerful individuals appear to escape scrutiny. I want to be able to release those documents as quickly as possible.
Starmer: ‘Mandelson portrayed Epstein as someone he barely knew’
Starmer spoke more about what Mandelson told him before he was appointed as US ambassador:
Before he was appointed ambassador, Mandelson was asked directly about the nature of his relationship with Epstein. He was asked whether he had stayed at Epstein’s after his conviction, and when, later, further information came to light, he was asked whether he had accepted gifts and hospitality, about whether he had been fully transparent about the relationship. The information now available makes clear that the answers he gave were lies.
He portrayed Epstein as someone he barely knew, and when it became clear that it was not true, I sacked him.
Starmer: ‘None of us knew depth and darkness of Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein’
Starmer has addressed the fallout from the Epstein scandal during a speech this morning in Hasting, East Sussex. He said that while Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein was publicly known, “none of us knew the depth and darkness” of it.
He said:
Serious allegations and serious evidence has emerged concerning Mandelson’s conduct, including his relationship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender. It had been publicly known for some time that Mandelson knew Epstein, but none of us knew the depth or the darkness of that relationship. Information that was not known at the time of his appointment [as US ambassador].
He apologised to Epstein’s victims, saying:
“I want to say this. I am sorry, sorry for what was done to you, sorry that so many people with power failed you. Sorry for having believed Mandelson’s lies and appointed him and sorry that even now you’re forced to watch this story unfold in public once again.
Starmer about to take questions following speech in East Sussex
Prime minister Keir Starmer will be taking questions imminently following a speech he is giving this morning in Hastings, East Sussex.
He is talking about the government’s Pride in Place programme but I suspect the vast majority of questions will be about Mandeleson.
Stay tuned as we bring you the top news lines…
Karl Turner, the Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull East, said the mood among backbenchers was the angriest he’d seen in 16 years and that Starmer had to sack McSweeney as chief of staff in order to survive the fury of his party.
He told Times Radio:
If the prime minister decides that he has to be surrounded by advisers who give him shoddy advice, I think the reality of that will end in the prime minister having to be making a decision about his future at some point soon.
I don’t want to be telling the PM who he’s entitled to have an as adviser … If McSweeney continues in No 10 Downing Street, I think the PM is up against it in a way that he doesn’t need to be.
How much did Starmer really know about Mandelson’s ties to Epstein?
Alexandra Topping
After the release of a vast tranche of documents and emails that shed further light on the close relationship between Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein, the government has come under intense pressure to release details about its vetting process before Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador in December 2024.
Below, we look at how much Keir Starmer knew about Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein, and what vetting process the former peer went through for the top diplomatic job in Washington.
Back to that Reform UK press conference in Newport, Wales, for a moment.
The Welsh-born former London council leader Dan Thomas has been unveiled by Nigel Farage as the leader of Reform UK in Wales ahead of the Senedd elections in May.
Thomas, who grew up in Wales, was the Conservative leader of Barnet Council from 2019 to 2022 but joined Reform UK last year.
He quit as a councillor for Finchley Church End in December after returning to Wales with his family.
Meanwhile, the former Conservative James Evans has been unveiled as the latest defector to Reform UK.
The current Senedd member for Brecon and Radnorshire was sacked by the Tories last month over suspicions he was planning to defect to Nigel Farage’s party and has since sat as an independent.
Mandelson files will be published even if embarrassing to No 10, says ISC chair
Alexandra Topping
A parliamentary committee looking into the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador and the depth of his relationship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein will not be afraid to publish material that is embarrassing to the government, its chair has said.
Lord Beamish, who leads parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC), said there had to be “maximum transparency” about the vetting process Mandelson went through before he was appointed ambassador to the US in December 2024 and what the government knew about his friendship with Epstein.
The ISC, which has statutory responsibility for oversight of the UK’s intelligence services will assess whether documents should not be released because they compromise national security, rather than jeopardising international relations, the Labour peer told BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight.
Beamish said it was possible the committee could publish documents that impacted international relations. “In the past, for example, we’ve had disputes where things have potentially been embarrassing to governments, but we’ve put them in because it doesn’t jeopardise national security,” he said.
John McDonnell has added his voice to the growing dissent among Labour MPs, as he questioned why senior party figures did not challenge Starmer at the time of Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador.
“Why weren’t they standing up, speaking out? This is about more than Keir’s judgment, it’s a collective failure of all Labour leadership,” McDonnell, who was shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, posted on X.
“I believe Keir is a responsible person and will want to consider whether in the interests of the country and party he should continue as PM. But simply replacing him with someone who stayed silent at the critical time won’t restore confidence in the party or politics.”
The Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington suggested for a caretaker leader to be appointed for a limited time period “to undertake a cleansing of our party and politics before we elect a new leader”.
Farage: Mandelson scandal ‘the biggest in British politics for over a century’
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage says the scandal involving Peter Mandelson and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein is “the biggest scandal in British politics for over one century”.
Speaking at an event at the International Convention Centre Wales in Newport, Farage said:
It isn’t just some sort of Partygate but a bit bigger.
This involves sex, it involves money, it involves the royal family. It involves the leaking of market sensitive, confidential information.
I suspect its pretty close, in many ways, to breaching the Official Secrets Act. This is far bigger than the Profumo scandal 60 years ago. This is the biggest scandal in British politics for over one century.
Farage also said he believed Morgan McSweeney, the chief of staff for prime minister Keir Starmer, would be “gone pretty quickly”.
“I don’t know how long Starmer will last as PM,” he said. “Indeed, I’m very worried about it. I want him to stay forever.”
Sacking Downing Street chief of staff Morgan McSweeney would not help the prime minister, according to Keir Starmer’s former director of strategic communications.
James Lyons, who left No 10 in September, told Sky News this morning:
In every administration there are figures who are lightning rods for criticism. That is definitely one of the many roles that Morgan plays at the moment.
But it’s unclear to me how it would help the prime minister if he lost Morgan. At a time like this, when you’re in this kind of spot, you want your most capable and most loyal aides around you.
McSweeney is perceived to have been close to Mandelson and a key ally in his successful bid to become the UK’s ambassador to the United States.
Meanwhile, Reed blamed the vetting process for failing to flag up the extent of Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein before his appointment to the US ambassadorship.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
The fault is with a long-established process that was gone through in the same way that it would have been for any other appointment of this kind, and it predates the arrival of this government.
Clearly, we need to look at that vetting process. But decisions can only be taken on the basis of the information available at the time, and Mandelson lied and covered up the extent of his relationship.
He made out the relationship was over and that it had barely ever existed.
We now know that was not the case, but the decision was taken at the time on the basis of Mandelson’s experience as the former EU trade commissioner and UK business secretary. This information, had it have been known, would have ruled him out completely.
Earlier this morning, Reed told Sky News that the revelations about Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein had felt like he had “been punched in the stomach”.
Keir Starmer believed Peter Mandelson when he made out his relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein “was next to nothing,” Steve Reed went on to say.
“You’re only as good as the information you receive,” the cabinet minister told LBC Radio. “Mandelson made out that relationship barely existed, that they hardly knew each other.
“There was a vetting process that included the security forces as well, and they flagged up no additional concerns… a liar is going to lie.”
Reed said the government wants to publish documents that show “what the prime minister saw when Peter Mandelson lied to him” before his appointment as ambassador to Washington “as quickly as possible”.
“We need to look at the documents that will show the extent to which Peter Mandelson was lying,” he said.
‘Of course’ Starmer and McSweeney are safe in their jobs, says Reed
The prime minister and his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney are safe in their jobs, Steve Reed insisted.
Asked whether Keir Starmer’s position is secure, the housing secretary told BBC Breakfast: “Of course it is.”
On Sky News, he was pressed on whether McSweeney is safe in his role, after being blamed by many Labour MPs for pushing for the appointment of his ally Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US in 2024.
Reed answered: “Yes, of course he is.”
Mandelson ‘conned everybody’ including Keir Starmer, says housing secretary
Hello and welcome to the UK politics blog.
After fierce criticism of in the Commons last night over the Peter Mandelson scandal, the prime minister’s housing secretary has been out defending Keir Starmer in the media this morning.
Steve Reed, a Starmer loyalist, insisted that Mandelson “conned everybody” over his ongoing relationship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
He told Sky News:
The person at fault here is not the prime minister or his team.
It is Peter Mandelson who lied, manipulated and deceived everybody, including the media, actually, because he was on the media an awful lot as well. He conned everybody.
What matters is what you do when you find out what’s gone wrong. And the prime minister couldn’t have been more decisive. He sacked Peter Mandelson at 5am in the morning as US ambassador months ago.
It comes as Labour MPs warned last night that Starmer’s days are numbered. The government was left on the brink of a defeat in the Commons until a mid-debate amendment brokered by Meg Hillier and Angela Rayner to force the release of documents about Mandelson’s appointment and the depth of his relationship with the convicted child sex offender.
MPs said the eventual release of the documents – which may be delayed by a police investigation into Mandelson – could trigger a leadership challenge. “We need all the poison to come out,” one MP said.
One former minister said: “We’ve had a lot of bad days recently, but this is the worst yet, I think,” while another MP warned: “Trust is finite. I’m personally not sure I could trust myself to back the prime minister in a confidence vote.”
“The most terminal mood is among the super-loyal,” an MP from the 2024 intake noted.
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