Peter Mandelson Stops Short Of Apologising For Epstein Friendship: 'I Was Not Culpable'

Lord Peter Mandelson has refused to apologise for his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, insisting he is “not culpable”.

The former ambassador to the US was sacked in September after unearthed emails found Mandelson had told Epstein “your friends stay with you and love you” even as he was facing child underage sex charges in 2008.

Their friendship was already public knowledge prior to Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador last year, but these emails offered up new information, according to the government, which meant the ambassador lost his job.

In his first interview since being fired, Mandelson told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that he wanted to apologise for the “system” which did not listen to Epstein’s victims sooner.

He said: “I want to apologise to those women for a system that refused to hear their voices and did not give them the protection they were entitled to expect.”

But when presenter Kuenssberg asked if he would apologise for his association with Epstein after his conviction, Mandelson said: “That system gave him protection but not them.

“If I had not known, or if I was in any way complicit or culpable, of course I would apologise for it.”

The presenter said: “But you won’t apologise for your association with him after your conviction?”

He replied: “I was not culpable, I was not knowledgable about what he was doing, and I will regret until my dying day the fact that powerless women were not given the protection they were entitled to expect.”

The former ambassador said he was “kept separate” from Epstein’s sexual life because Mandelson is gay and therefore was not included.

Mandelson also claimed No.10 “knew everything” at the time of his appointment, denying that he had misled the government over the extent of their friendship.

He alleged some of the emails he sent to Epstein “came as a surprise to me”, too.

A government spokesperson told the BBC that the “emails showed that the depth and extent” of their friendship was “materially different” to that known at the time of his appointment.

They added: “In particular, his suggestion that Epstein’s first conviction was wrongful and should be challenged was new information. In light of that, and mindful of the victims of Epstein’s crimes, he was withdrawn as ambassador with immediate effect.”

Asked for her response to the interview, transport secretary Heidi Alexander told the BBC that Mandelson had showed “at best, deep naivety”.

She said: “I think it would have gone a long way for the women who were subjected to the most appalling treatment at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein for Peter to have apologised.”

The cabinet minister continued: “I think the breadth and the nature of the relationship Peter Mandelson had with Jeffrey Epstein only became clear last year, and that’s why the prime minister acted swiftly to remove him as ambassador to the United States.”