Keir Starmer Apologizes To Epstein Victims For Giving Peter Mandelson Ambassador Job
HuffPost
"None of us knew the depth and the darkness of that relationship," the British prime minister said.
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer apologized Thursday to victims of Jeffrey Epstein for appointing Peter Mandelson as the U.K.’s ambassador to Washington despite his ties to the disgraced financier.
The prime minister said Mandelson had “portrayed Epstein as someone he barely knew.” In a speech on Thursday, he said “I am sorry … for having believed Mandelson’s lies and appointed him.”
Starmer fired Mandelson in September after emails were published showing that he maintained a friendship with Epstein following the late financier’s 2008 conviction for sex offenses involving a minor. Epstein died by suicide in a jail cell in 2019, while awaiting trial on U.S. federal charges accusing him of sexually abusing dozens of girls.
Starmer never met Epstein and is not accused of any wrongdoing. But the prime minister is under intense pressure over the appointment after newly released documents revealed new details of Mandelson’s close relationship with Epstein.
“I was lied to,” Starmer said.
