{"id":469999,"date":"2026-03-11T17:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T17:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/469999\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T17:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T17:12:09","slug":"starmer-was-warned-of-reputational-risk-over-mandelsons-links-with-epstein-files-show-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/469999\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer was warned of ‘reputational risk’ over Mandelson’s links with Epstein, files show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Analysis\"Now clear PM knew about Mandelson-Epstein relationship – and concerns were raisedpublished at 16:57 GMT<\/p>\n

16:57 GMT<\/p>\n

\"\"Nick Eardley
Political correspondent<\/p>\n

\"StarmerImage source, House of Commons<\/p>\n

Take a step back. <\/p>\n

The big question is about the prime
\nminister’s judgement; should he have appointed Peter Mandelson as US ambassador
\ngiven what was known about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein?<\/p>\n

We know more about that relationship now as a result of
\nthe emails published in the United States.<\/p>\n

But the vetting report published today by the UK government
\nspells out that the prime minister was told the relationship continued after
\nEpstein’s initial conviction. <\/p>\n

It says: “After Epstein was first convicted of
\nprocuring an underage girl in 2008, their relationship continued across
\n2009-2011.”<\/p>\n

The prime minister will have had this warning when he chose
\nto proceed.<\/p>\n

The report concludes there was a “general reputational
\nrisk” over the Epstein relationship.<\/p>\n

It also highlights other risks, including Mandelson’s
\npolitical past. Lord Mandelson has repeatedly let it be known that he believes
\nhe has not acted criminally, did not act for personal gain and is cooperating
\nwith the police.<\/p>\n

We also now know that Jonathan Powell – who served
\nas Tony Blair’s chief of staff in Downing Street – thought the appointment
\nprocess had been “weirdly rushed”. He is said to have raised concerns
\nwith Morgan McSweeney, who was then Starmer’s chief of staff – but was
\napparently told these has been addressed.<\/p>\n

The government has not published the document which shows
\nfollow up questions being asked of Mandelson, at the request of the
\nMetropolitan Police. This may shed more light on what Mandelson did and didn’t
\nreveal when probed by Number 10. <\/p>\n

The BBC understands that Lord Mandelson’s view is he
\nanswered questions about his relationship with Epstein in the vetting process
\naccurately.<\/p>\n

But it is clear from today’s documents that concerns were
\nraised – and the prime minister was told about the relationship continuing
\nafter Epstein’s conviction. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Now clear PM knew about Mandelson-Epstein relationship – and concerns were raisedpublished at 16:57 GMT 16:57 GMT Nick…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-469999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}