Mandelson ‘economical with the truth’ about Epstein in answers to No 10

Lord Peter Mandelson was “economical” with the truth when he answered questions about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein before being appointed ambassador to Washington, Downing Street sources have said.

The Labour grandee was sacked as the UK’s representative in Washington on Thursday after emails were published showing Lord Mandelson sent supportive messages even as Epstein faced jail for sex offences.

The emails brought to light “new information” and showed “the depth and extent” of Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein was “materially different from that known at the time of his appointment”, Downing Street and the Foreign Office said when his withdrawal from the post was announced.

Ahead of his appointment, the Prime Minister was given a file about Lord Mandelson’s links to Epstein by the Cabinet Office Propriety and Ethics Team and prepared three questions based on it, the PA news agency understands.

Lord Mandelson was asked why he continued contact with Epstein after he was convicted, why he was reported to have stayed in one of the paedophile financier’s homes while he was in prison and whether he was associated with a charity founded by Ghislaine Maxwell that Epstein had backed.

The BBC reported it understands Lord Mandelson believes he was truthful about his association with Epstein and that he told No 10 he had not stayed at his apartment while he was in prison in 2009.

But No 10 sources said Lord Mandelson was “economical with the truth” in his answers to the three questions.

Another vetting process carried out by the Foreign Office followed.

Kemi Badenoch earlier accused the Prime Minister of lying about what he knew regarding Lord Mandelson’s emails.

The Conservative Party leader said Sir Keir Starmer has “very serious questions to answer” and called for “full transparency”.

She was referring to reporting that suggested Downing Street was aware of the emails on Tuesday, two days before Lord Mandelson was removed from his post and a day before Sir Keir backed him at Prime Minister’s Questions.

The Foreign Office received a media inquiry outlining details of the messages on Tuesday, which was passed to No 10, the PA news agency understands.

A Government source said Sir Oliver Robbins, the permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office, asked Lord Mandelson about the emails and did not hear back until Wednesday afternoon.

The Prime Minister is understood not to have been aware of the contents of the emails until Wednesday evening – after he told the Commons he had “confidence” in Lord Mandelson.

The decision to sack Lord Mandelson with immediate effect was taken on Thursday morning and announced shortly afterwards.

Mrs Badenoch said in a post on X: “Looks like the Prime Minister and Labour MPs spent the week lying to the whole country about what they knew regarding Mandelson’s involvement with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.”

She added: “If No 10 had those emails for 48 hours before acting, it means he lied at PMQs and ministers lied again about new additional information. These are yet more errors of judgment.

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

Allies of the peer told The Times that he admitted in his vetting interview that he continued his relationship with Epstein for many years.

Dame Emily Thornberry, chairwoman of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, has demanded answers from the Foreign Secretary on the vetting process for Lord Mandelson.

His friendship with Epstein was known before his appointment, but reports in The Sun and Bloomberg showed their relationship continued after the financier’s crimes had emerged.

Emails published on Wednesday included passages in which Lord Mandelson told Epstein to “fight for early release” shortly before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

He is also reported to have told Epstein “I think the world of you” the day before the disgraced financier began his sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008.

The scandal has put pressure on Sir Keir, coming within a week of Angela Rayner’s departure and the ensuing Cabinet reshuffle.

It has also brought renewed scrutiny of his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, who was reported to have lobbied for Lord Mandelson’s appointment.

Backbencher Olivia Blake said it was “really embarrassing” if Sir Keir was not told about Lord Mandelson’s emails to Epstein soon enough.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I just think that whoever’s gatekeeping the information to the Prime Minister needs to stop. They need to be getting stuff to him much earlier.”

It came after another Labour MP, Clive Lewis, publicly questioned Sir Keir’s leadership, telling the BBC the Prime Minister does not seem “up to the job”.

Lucy Powell, one of two candidates in the race to take Ms Rayner’s place as the Labour Party’s deputy leader, called for a “change of culture”.

Labour peer Baroness Harriet Harman said she “never thought it was a good idea” to appoint Lord Mandelson as envoy to Washington.

“But even I could not believe that he’d written to his millionaire friend Jeffrey Epstein offering him love and support when he was in prison awaiting trial for more crimes, when he’d already been convicted of sex offences against young girls,” she wrote in The Mirror.

Baroness Harman, who is the UK’s special envoy for women and girls, said: “We have to be on the side of the vulnerable, not backing their abusers. I can only imagine how horrified Starmer must have been to see the Mandelson emails.”