Keir Starmer is under pressure over the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as US ambassador as the family of one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims hit out at the move
Peter Mandelson should never have been made US ambassador due to his links to Jeffrey Epstein, the family of one of Epstein’s victims has said.
Lord Mandelson was sacked by Keir Starmer after leaked emails were published by Bloomberg showing he sent supportive messages to the paedophile financier, even as he faced jail for sex offences.
Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, alleged she was abused by Epstein after she met Ghislaine Maxwell when she was working at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida in 2000. She also claimed that Epstein introduced her to Prince Andrew in 2001, when she was just 17, who she alleged sexually abused her three times.
Prince Andrew, who denied all claims against him, reached an out-of-court settlement with Ms Giuffre in 2022 which contained no admission of liability or apology.
There is no suggestion that Lord Mandelson ever met Giuffre. Her family today condemned his appointment to the top diplomatic post.
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Asked if he should have been given the role, her brother Sky Roberts told the BBC: “Absolutely not, he should never have been given the position in the first place. It speaks to how deep the corruption goes in our systems. Whether that’s linked to the UK, US or abroad.”
Giuffre’s sister-in-law, Amanda Roberts, said: “Why does it take us to have to pull out the skeletons for people to be held accountable? Our governments have allowed these people to hold their status and their title without shame.
“He should never have been given that title. We have to put the spotlight on them. It’s unfair we continuously pull these skeletons out, that survivors have to continuously point the finger for us to do the right thing”. No10 and Lord Mandelson declined to comment to the BBC.
Mr Starmer is facing questions over his judgement in appointing Lord Mandelson, who he defended during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. It is understood that the PM was not made aware of the contents of the emails until that night.
Ahead of Lord Mandelson’s appointment, the PM was given a vetting file that included information about his links to Epstein by the Cabinet Office Propriety and Ethics Team.
He asked the peer three questions, which included why he 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 BBC reported it understands Lord Mandelson believes he was truthful about his association with Epstein and that he told No 10 he had not stayed at his apartment while he was in prison in 2009.
But No 10 sources said Lord Mandelson was “economical with the truth” in his answers to those questions. Another vetting process carried out by the Foreign Office followed.
Today, Business Secretary Peter Kyle said Lord Mandelson’s “singular talents” meant he was deemed “worth the risk” to appoint after two vetting processes turned up information that was already public.
He told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News: “The Cabinet Office did an independent inquiry into the appointment, as they do in every public appointment of this nature, and the information, that was presented to the Prime Minister.
“The second process was obviously a political process where there are political conversations done in No 10 about all the other aspects of an appointment of this nature.
“Now both of these things turned up information that was already public and a decision was made that based on Peter’s singular talents in this area, that the risk of appointing knowing what was already public was worth the risk.
“Now of course we have seen the emails which were not published at the time, were not public and not even known about, and that has changed the situation.”
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