Lord Mandelson gave Jeffrey Epstein advice as he faced child sex charges and told him to push for early release in bombshell new revelations.
While the disgraced financier was facing charges in June 2008 over soliciting a minor, Lord Mandelson, who serves as Britain’s ambassador to the United States wrote to him: “Your friends stay with you and love you", the Sun reported.
The newspaper said leaked emails also showed shortly before Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in jail after a plea deal with Florida prosecutors, Lord Mandelson added: “Fight for early release".
In one message, the Labour grandee wrote: “I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened.
“I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened.
"I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain. You have to be incredibly resilient, fight for early release and be philosophical about it as much as you can.
The email sent between the pair's private email addresses, continued: “everything can be turned into an opportunity and that you will come through it and be stronger for it.
"The whole thing has been years of torture and now you have to show the world how big a person you are, and how strong.”
The bombshell emails come after Sir Keir Starmer said on Wednesday he has full confidence in Lord Mandelson after the British ambassador to the US admitted new revelations about his friendship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein were “embarrassing”.
Lord Mandelson previously admitted his friendship with the Epstein went on “for far longer” than it should have done.
He is facing criticism after it was revealed he sent a gushing 10 page birthday letter to the disgraced financier in 2003 where he declared Epstein his “best pal”.
The under-fire US Ambassador described the relationship as “albatross around his neck” and said he had a “deep regret” at remaining in contact with the sex offender after he was convicted for underage sexual assault crimes in 2008.
He courted more controvery in an interview with the Sun's editor-at-large Harry Cole on Wednesday when he said Epstein, who ided i his jail cell in New York in 2019, may have been murdered.
The US government says convicted sex offender was found hanged in his New York jail cell in 2019, but Lord Mandelson said he did not know “whether he was murdered or whether it was a suicide.”
Widespread conspiracy theories suggest the controversial financier was killed before blowing the whistle on a powerful ring of sex offenders.
On Mr Cole's Saves The West podcast Lord Mandelson was asked if he had “any reason to believe that Epstein's death was anything other than suicide?”
He replied: “I honestly have not the faintest idea how he died, whether he was murdered or whether it was a suicide.
“All I know is that, with all the information that we have about this dreadful, dreadful man.
"I wish that I could remove that lot. I think he is like, he's like a piece of muck attached to my shoes, which I find it very difficult to kick away.
“But I will do it. I will do it, but I can only do it by first of all acknowledging how much I regret ever having met him in the first place, and how much I regret deeply continuing association with him"
In further developments on Wednesday the Times reported that officials blocked the publication of a secret memo in which Lord Mandelson reportedly advised Sir Tony Blair to meet with Epstein when he was prime minister.
Lord Mandelson, is believed to have recommended in a 2002 memo to senior aides that Blair meet with Epstein—a suggestion that was subsequently relayed to the prime minister.
The memo was scheduled for public release through the National Archives as part of a routine disclosure, but its release was blocked, according to The Times.
Officials reportedly determined that the document could embarrass the UK and strain diplomatic ties with the US, which are particularly sensitive as Lord Mandelson is currently working to strengthen relations with President Donald Trump.
Donald Trump has also faced public scrutiny for his association with Epstein, having described him as a “terrific guy” in a 2002 interview with New York Magazine.
After Epstein was convicted of child sex offences in 2008, Trump distanced himself from the financier, claiming he was “not a fan”.
When pressed at PMQs to release all documents relating to Mandelson’s links to Epstein, Starmer said “that is subject to a procedure which includes an independent element”.
The government is withholding details of the attempt by Mandelson to engineer a meeting between Blair and Epstein while the former was prime minister, The Times reported.
The string of revelations intesnified calls for Lord Mandelson to quit or be sacked by the Prime Minister.
Labour backbenchers Richard Burgon and Nadia Whittome broke ranks on Wednesday to urge Sir Keir Starmer to sack Lord Mandelson "immediately".
They joined Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who described the ambassador's position as "untenable" and said he should be "fired now".
