British ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson, speaks for a welcome reception for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the ambassador’s residence on February 26 in Washington, DC
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London-A few days before President Trump’s arrival in the United Kingdom for a state visit, the United Kingdom dismissed its ambassador in Washington for links with the sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In 2008, before becoming ambassador to the United States, Peter Mandelson -a former Minister of the Cabinet and Commerce Commissioner of the European Union of Center -Gauche Labor Party – wrote to Epstein an email saying: “I think the world of you and I feel desperate and furious at what happened.”
In another, he wrote: “Your friends stay with you and love you.”
Mandelson emails, published Wednesday by The sun The newspaper was sent after Epstein was charged by a great jury in 2006. New York financier pleaded guilty two years later to solicit sex with a minor.
British Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Stephen Doughty, said on Thursday, told Parliament that Prime Minister Keir Starmer withdrew Mandelson as an ambassador – with immediate effect.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that emails show that the extent of Mandelson’s relationship with the late sexual offender was “materially different” from what was known when he was appointed ambassador. He distinguished one of his emails in which Mandelson deplored Epstein’s conviction, calling him illustrated and suggesting that this should be disputed.
Mandelson is known in British politics as a backstage doctor who played an important role in the 1997 election of Prime Minister Tony Blair, winning the nickname “Prince of Darkness”.
In 2001, after having resigned from the Government scandal of Blair, then won the re -election in Parliament, he called “Fighter … not an abandonment”. (The scandal involved allegations according to which Mandelson helped a Indian billionaire to obtain a British passport; an official survey erased him from any reprehensible act.)
His dismissal as an ambassador complicates Starmer’s efforts to establish relations with the Trump administration, and he sometimes prepares to go to the United Kingdom on Tuesday for a state visit.
Photos have also emerged from Mandelson in a bathrobe at Epstein. And in a sadly famous Epstein birthday book – which includes a woman’s body drawing that President Trump denies writing – there is also a handwritten message from Mandelson, calling Epstein his “best boyfriend”.
In a television interview on Wednesday, before his dismissal, Mandelson declared that he now considered Epstein as “a charismatic criminal liar” who became “an albatrosur around my neck”.
“I regret very much that I fell into his lies,” he said.
The decision to dismiss Mandelson occurred less than 24 hours after Starmer told Parliament that he had confidence in his American envoy, who had held the position for seven months. Opposition politicians called on revelations on “disgusting” Mandelson and accused of a bad judgment by keeping him in the role for so long.
Mandelson will be replaced by his assistant, James Roscoe, a veteran diplomat and former communications chief of the late Queen Elizabeth II. He will supervise Trump’s state visit with King Charles III next week.
