Epstein’s shadow hangs over special relationship before Trump state visit

When Donald Trump dines with the King and Prime Minister during his state banquet next week, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein will be the ghost at the feast.

The White House, the royal family and Sir Keir Starmer’s Government have all been tarnished by association with the sex offender, with the sacking of Lord Peter Mandelson the latest stage in the saga.

Mr Trump continues to deny being the author of a sexually suggestive letter in Epstein’s 50th birthday book in 2003, while the Duke of York – the King’s brother – was forced away from his public role in 2019 amid the furore over his friendship with the convicted billionaire paedophile.

Just days before the state visit brings Mr Trump, Sir Keir and the King together, the Prime Minister sacked his ambassador to the US after the emergence of emails showing the full extent of his relationship with Epstein.

The decision was taken in a meeting between Sir Keir and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper at 10am, with MPs informed 45 minutes later – suggesting it did not take long for the Prime Minister to sack the high-profile envoy he had taken a political risk to appoint.

With Washington five hours behind the UK, it meant Lord Mandelson was informed before dawn in the US that he was losing his post with immediate effect.

Because of the nature of his role as an ambassador, Buckingham Palace also had to be told of the decision.

Sir Keir had insisted at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday that “full due process” was gone through in relation to Lord Mandelson’s appointment and “I have confidence in the ambassador in the role he is doing”.

But the disclosure of emails between Lord Mandelson and Epstein from 2005 to 2010 – including after his conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution – changed Sir Keir’s thinking.

The emails were sent from an account which had long been closed and were not available during the vetting process.

The onus would have been on Lord Mandelson to disclose anything potentially damaging to the Government.

But No 10 appeared unaware of the emails until their publication on Wednesday night.

The day before Epstein reported to a Florida jail in 2008 to begin his sentence for soliciting sex with a minor, Lord Mandelson wrote “I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened” adding: “I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain.”

Home Office minister Mike Tapp, sent out to defend the Government’s position on the airwaves in the morning, was blunt in his assessment of the emails: “Really disturbing and sickening.”

Health Secretary Wes Streeting, speaking shortly before Lord Mandelson was sacked, said he was “completely disgusted”.

Other senior ministers – including Chancellor Rachel Reeves – cancelled planned engagements as the Government went into crisis management mode.

Sir Keir found the emails “reprehensible”, a No 10 spokesman said and they were given as the reason for Lord Mandelson’s immediate withdrawal from the Washington mission.

The Foreign Office said the emails showed “the depth and extent of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment” in 2024.

The suggestion that he believed Epstein’s first conviction was wrongful and should be challenged was “new information”, the Foreign Office and No 10 said.

But Lord Mandelson’s links with Epstein were widely known before Sir Keir took the unusual step of appointing a prominent political figure – rather than a career diplomat – to the Washington post.

The risks of appointing a politician who is no stranger to scandal were obvious and Sir Keir is now paying a political price for the gamble.

Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.

But six years later his shadow still hangs over the special relationship between the UK and US.