The UK’s ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, has said he “regrets” his relationship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Lord Mandelson has repeatedly been quizzed on his friendship with the paedophile and convicted sex trafficker.
Epstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking minors.
An internal JPMorgan report from 2019, filed to a New York court in 2023, said that “Jeffrey Epstein appears to maintain a particularly close relationship with Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, and Lord Peter Mandelson, a senior member of the British government”, according to the Financial Times.
The dossier laid bare the Labour grandee’s ties to the late paedophile – who was close enough to the former Labour cabinet minister to call him “Petie”.
It is not clear when Lord Mandelson was introduced to Epstein, though a 2002 New York Magazine said he had a dinner party at Epstein’s Manhattan home. A photo of Lord Mandelson and Epstein celebrating a birthday at Epstein’s Paris home in 2007 emerged in 2022.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Lord Mandelson.
Speaking to Sky News on Tuesday, the UK ambassador to the US was asked if he stayed in one of Epstein’s properties while he was in jail.
He replied: «I’m not answering any questions about him. My knowledge of him is something I regret, I wish I’d never met him in the first place.»
He was then pressed on if he had a relationship with Epstein while he was in jail. Lord Mandelson replied: «Why did many people meet him? He was a prolific networker. And I wish I’d never met him in the first place.»
Earlier this year, the Labour grandee told the Financial Times: “I regret ever meeting him or being introduced to him by his partner Ghislaine Maxwell. I regret even more the hurt he caused to many young women.”
He went on to add: “I’m not going to go into this. It’s an FT obsession and frankly you can all f*** off. OK?”
Lord Mandelson was appointed UK ambassador to the United States in December 2024.
He had described Donald Trump as a “danger to the world” in 2019. Following his appointment as ambassador, he said his comments were “ill-judged and wrong”.
