Peter Mandelson left “quite a record” for eight months in post but his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein after his first conviction were “inexplicable”, a former UK ambassador to the US has said.
The Labour grandee was sacked as US ambassador on Thursday after emails were published showing he had sent supportive messages even as Epstein faced jail for sex offences.
The Prime Minister is facing questions over what he knew about the peer’s friendship with the paedophile financier and the vetting process for his diplomatic posting.
Former US ambassador Lord Kim Darroch told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News: “(Lord Mandelson) presided over what looks, in comparison to most countries’ trade deals, a rather good deal for the UK; he seems to have got close to a number of important people in the White House, including the president himself; and there is a technology deal that I think he masterminded that’s going to be signed during this state visit.
“Epstein was a monster and it is inexplicable that he had this relationship continuing with him after the first conviction – but in terms of performing his ambassadorial duties, that’s quite a record for a mere eight months in office.”
Lord Darroch was forced to quit his role in 2019 during Mr Trump’s first term after leaked briefings showed him describing the president’s government as “dysfunctional”, “inept” and “divided”.
On Lord Mandelson’s appointment, Lord Darroch told the programme that “you would expect them to know quite a lot and discover things that maybe weren’t advertised” during the vetting process.
“They certainly don’t just ask you to fill in a form” listing “what you want them to know and maybe concealing the things you didn’t want them to know”, he added.
It takes “weeks and weeks, if not longer” and “they ask people about you and they look into your background through sources you may not have nominated as people to act as your referees”, he said.
“On the other hand, you know, emails from closed or old email addresses that have been closed down – I’m not enough of a technical expert to know how you get to that kind of thing, so whether that would have been available to them I have no idea,” he added.
Ahead of Lord Mandelson’s appointment, the Prime Minister was given a file that included information about his links to Epstein by the Cabinet Office Propriety and Ethics Team and prepared three questions based on it, the PA news agency understands.
They included why Lord Mandelson continued contact with Epstein after he was convicted, and why he was reported to have stayed in one of the paedophile financier’s homes while he was in prison.
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 emails were sent from an account which had long been closed and were not available during the vetting process.
Lord Darroch cautioned against overstating “the importance” of the ambassador and emphasised the key relationships are between Prime Minister and president, secretary of state and foreign secretary, and the treasury secretary and Chancellor.
There is an embassy of “some 500 people”, he said, including a network of relationships across intelligence, defence and security.
However, he added: “If I were sitting in No 10 now I would say, get a new appointment announced as quickly as possible and get someone over there, because we live, as you know… in very volatile times, there’s a lot going on, so you do need an ambassador there.”
