THE UK’s ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, said he “regrets” his relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein after he stayed at one of his properties while the disgraced financier was in jail.
Mandelson's links to the late billionaire, who killed himself in August 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking minors, were exposed in a report for the same year by JP Morgan bank, filed in a New York court.
Epstein had previously served an 18-month sentence after pleading guilty to procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution.
The JP Morgan report suggests that whilst Epstein was serving his sentence, Mandelson stayed at the paedophile's Manhattan flat.
Epstein wrote to his private banker on June 17, 2009: “Peter will be staying at 71st over weekend…”
Mandelson was the Business Secretary in the UK government under then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown at the time, before he was appointed as the UK ambassador to the United States in December 2024.
When asked by Sky News, if he stayed at Epstein's flat while the disgraced financier was in jail, Mandelson said: “I'm not answering any questions about him.
“My knowledge of him is something I regret, I wish I'd never met him in the first place.”
Mandelson was then asked why he had an association with Epstein whilst he was in jail.
He replied: “Why did many people meet him?
“He was a prolific networker, and I wish I'd never met him in the first place.”
The internal JPMorgan report indicated that the Labour grandee’s ties to the late paedophile, who was close enough to Mandelson to call him “Petie”.
It is not clear when Mandelson was introduced to Epstein, though a 2002 New York Magazine said he had a dinner party at Epstein’s Manhattan home.
Earlier this year, Mandelson told the Financial Times: “I regret ever meeting him or being introduced to him by his partner Ghislaine Maxwell. I regret even more the hurt he caused to many young women.”
He added: “I’m not going to go into this. It’s an FT obsession and frankly, you can all f*** off. OK?”
