Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer says he beat himself up over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the US, regardless of the peer’s hyperlinks to baby intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Sir Keir mentioned he was his personal harshest critic over his appointment of the previous peer to Britain’s prime diplomatic posting overseas.
The Prime Minister continues to face questions on his judgement after the discharge of presidency paperwork that confirmed he had been warned – earlier than approving Mandelson for the position – of a “general reputational risk” over the peer’s affiliation with the disgraced financier.
“Nobody has been harder on me in relation to the mistake I made there than me,” he informed Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast.
“In the immediate days after this all came out, I was particularly hard on myself. So yeah, everybody else was criticising, I get all that.
“But nobody was criticising me more than myself. I’m not trying to, you know, make that a mitigation or an excuse, but I know I made a mistake.”
“I beat myself up about it,” he added.
The prime minister sacked Mandelson in September after newly revealed emails confirmed the depth and extent of the then peer’s relationship with Epstein was “materially different from that known at the time of his appointment”.
The Tories mentioned it confirmed an “extraordinary error of judgement” by Sir Keir and that it raised “massive questions” about what he knew concerning the pair’s relationship and when.
Sir Keir mentioned that Mandelson lied repeatedly in the course of the vetting course of.
The PM went on: “I know that after nearly 20 years fighting violence against women and girls, I made a mistake there. And I hate the fact I made that mistake.
“And I dwell on it. I beat myself up about it. It’s certainly not a mistake I’d ever repeat. But there’s no criticism anybody else can level at me that will be as harsh as the criticism I dished out for myself.”
Last month, MPs ordered the government to release tens of thousands of documents relating to Mandelson’s appointment in 2024.
The documents are expected to detail how the peer was vetted and what was known about his relationship with Epstein, who died in 2019.
Mandelson quit the House of Lords last month before being arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. It has been alleged that he leaked sensitive government information to Epstein while he was a minister.
Mandelson’s spokesperson has said he “very much regrets” the reference to Epstein, and allies have mentioned the pair met not more than 5 – 6 occasions. In January, Lord Mandelson apologised to the victims of Epstein for remaining associates with the paedophile financier after his conviction.
The first tranche of paperwork referring to the appointment was revealed earlier this month. More will observe.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/keir-starmer-mandelson-ambassador-appointment-b2946523.html