Peter Mandelson and Keir Starmer in Washington, D.C., in February 2025.
Photo: Carl Court/Getty Images

Like many rich and powerful men before him, the British politician Peter Mandelson remained in politics even after his many connections to Jeffrey Epstein became public in the years after the sex criminal’s death. But last year, Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer fired Mandelson as U.K. ambassador to the United States after new documents showed the extent of their friendship — including emails in which Mandelson wrote that he was “furious” about Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor.

With the Justice Department’s massive release of Epstein material on January 30, Mandelson’s relationship is now threatening the entire Starmer administration, with multiple resignations and calls for the PM to step down for his decision to appoint Mandelson as ambassador in late 2024.

This time, the crisis stems from Mandelson’s emails during the financial crisis in which he gave Epstein market-sensitive information about the British government’s plans, including advance warning in May 2010 that Parliament had agreed on a €500 billion bailout. There are also bank statements suggesting Epstein wired around $75,000 to Mandelson in 2003 and 2004. On Sunday, Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney announced his resignation, stating that the decision to include Mandelson in the government “has damaged our party, our country, and trust in politics itself.” McSweeney has been described as a protege of Mandelson and reportedly defended him as Starmer weighed the decision to fire his ambassador in September. In his statement, he added that he advised Starmer to appoint Mandelson in the first place “and I take full responsibility for that advice.”

On Monday, Starmer’s director of communications Tim Allan also resigned
over his connections to Mandelson just five months after taking the position. “I have decided to stand down to allow a new No. 10 team to be built,” he said in a statement. Allan was a friend of Mandelson who worked closely with him in the 1990s under Tony Blair, when Mandelson served in top roles in the State department.

While the rest of Starmer’s cabinet is standing by their boss, the Labour Party leader in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, called for Starmer’s resignation on Monday for appointing Mandelson despite loads of documents connecting him to Epstein by the time he made his decision to include him in his administration. “I have to be honest about failure wherever I see it,” said Sarwar, who appears to be creating some distance between himself and Starmer before the Scottish election in May.

Starmer’s remaining spokesperson said on Monday that the PM had no intentions of stepping down. In a statement last week, he apologized to Epstein’s victims. “I am sorry. Sorry for what was done to you,” he said. “Sorry that so many people with power failed you. Sorry for having believed Mandelson’s lies and appointed him.” Meanwhile, Mandelson, has taken another hit to his reputation, stepping down from the House of Lords last week.

The situation in the U.K. — where politicians are stepping down for their connection to a man connected to Epstein — is a stark contrast to the United States, where President Donald Trump was close friends with Epstein for years and his Treasury Secretary Howard Lutnick has been accused by members of Congress of lying about his connections to Epstein, his Upper East Side neighbor. The last major Trump administration figure to resign over his connections to Epstein came during the first term, when Labor Secretary Alex Acosta stepped down in 2019 for his role in orchestrating Epstein’s extremely lenient plea deal for soliciting a minor in 2008.

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