Keir Starmer 'never' would have appointed Lord Mandelson if he knew content of Epstein emails

Sir Keir Starmer says he “never” would have appointed former US ambassador Lord Mandelson if he knew the content of emails sent to sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, the Prime Minister insisted that he did not know the “nature and extent of the relationship” between his former US ambassador and the paedophile financier.

Last week, reports in both The Sun and Bloomberg revealed emails in which Mandelson told Epstein he was “following [Epstein] closely and here whenever you need”.

Calls were made for Mandelson to be axed, after it emerged that he remained friends with Epstein, even after his first indictment for soliciting underage sex.

Mandelson is also reported to have told Epstein to “fight for early release” shortly before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and told him, “I think the world of you” the day before he began his sentence.

Starmer subsequently sacked Mandelson on Thursday morning after the content of the emails came to light, less than 24 hours after insisting he had “confidence” in him at Prime Minister’s Questions.

On Monday, the Prime Minister said the messages “go to the heart and cut across what [his] Government is doing on violence against women and girls”.

“Had I known then what I know now, I’d have never appointed him, because what emerged last week were emails, Bloomberg emails, which showed that the nature and extent of the relationship that Peter Mandelson had with Epstein was far different to what I had understood to be the position when I appointed him,” Starmer said.

Mandelson later said he regretted “very, very deeply indeed carrying on” his association with the financier “for far longer than I should have done”.

‘I did not know the content of the emails’

Questions have remained about when Starmer and No 10 knew the details of the emails.

Breaking his silence on the row, the Prime Minister insisted on Monday that he did not know the content of Mandelson’s emails prior to PMQs last week.

“It was only on Wednesday, early evening, that I knew the contents of the Bloomberg emails,” Starmer said.

“It was only very late on Wednesday when Peter Mandelson replied to the questions that have been put to him by Government officials.

“And it was on that, basically, I took my decision that he should be removed.

“What I knew before PMQs was that there had been media enquiries. I didn’t know the content of the Bloomberg emails, and I knew that questions had been put to Peter that he had not yet answered, and he hadn’t answered them by the time I got to PMQs.”

He added: “There is, of course, a time lag in America, but I knew that there were questions that have been put to him, but I didn’t know what answers he was going to give to those questions.”