Lord Mandelson says his 2003 birthday message to Epstein ‘very embarrassing’

British ambassador to the US Lord Mandelson has said a resurfaced birthday message in which he described paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein as his “best pal” is “very embarrassing to see and to read”.

Lord Mandelson’s words could be seen in a 2003 “birthday book” compiled by British convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell which was published by the House Oversight Committee in the US following a request for documents to the Epstein estate.

Speaking to The Sun’s Harry Cole Saves The West programme, Lord Mandelson said he regrets “very, very deeply indeed carrying on” the association with Epstein “for far longer than I should have done”.

He said he “never saw the wrongdoing” or “evidence of criminal activity”, adding he does not believe he is “named in the Epstein files”.

Giving his reaction to his birthday comments to Epstein being published, Lord Mandelson told The Sun: “I find them very embarrassing to see and to read, but they were written before he was indicted.

“I just feel two things now – one, I feel a tremendous sense, a profound sense of sympathy for those people, those women, who suffered as a result of his behaviour and his illegal criminal activities.

“Secondly, I regret very, very deeply indeed carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done.”

He continued: “I regret very much that I fell for his lies, I fell for and accepted assurances that he had given me about his indictment, his original criminal case in Florida, like very many people, I took at face value what he said.

“With hindsight, with fresh information, many years later, we realised that we had been wrong to believe him.

“He is a charismatic criminal liar we now see, and I regret very much indeed.

“I felt it like an albatross around my neck since his death in 2018 or 19, when it was.

“I feel, I feel a tremendous sense of regret, not only that I met him in the first place, but I continued the association, and I took, at face value, the lies that he fed me and many others.”

From the 238-page book, titled The First Fifty Years, Lord Mandelson’s birthday message to Epstein shows him pictured with two unidentified women, whose faces are blocked out in the documents, preceded by the message: “Leaving you with some ‘interesting’ friends to entertain instead.”

He signs off the message saying: “But, wherever he is in the world, he remains my best pal.”

Speaking about what he knew about Epstein, Lord Mandelson told The Sun: “He operated in a financial and business way, way above my level.

“Yes, he was always saying, ‘Would you like to see so and so, I got this friend, I’m having this dinner. Would you like to come?’

“He was a prolific social networker and a political networker. That is true.

“I just would say this… during all the time I was an associate of his, I never saw the wrongdoing. I never saw any evidence of criminal activity.

“I never sought and nor did he offer any introductions to women in the way that allegedly he did for others.

“Perhaps it’s because I’m a gay man, perhaps when I knew him, perhaps when I was associated with him those years ago, as I did with my then partner and now husband, we never, ever saw any evidence or sign of this activity, which has since come to light.

“That’s why I feel so profoundly upset by what has been now revealed about what he did to women and why I feel profoundly upset that I was taken in by him and continued my association with him for far longer than I should have.”

Lord Mandelson added: “I don’t believe I’m named in the Epstein files.

“I have no doubt at all that there’s a lot of traffic, correspondence exchanges between us, absolutely. And we know those are going to surface.

“We know they’re going to come out. We know they’re going to be very embarrassing, and they know that I’m going to profoundly regret ever having met him and been introduced to him in the first place.

“But I can’t rewrite history. What I can do, what I can do is express my profound sympathy for those who were badly treated by him.

“And secondly, I can accept, yes, I can accept that I continued my association with him for too long.”