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Turning now to the UK, a second batch of documents connected to the appointment of Lord Mandelson as ambassador to the US will be released sometime today. This as new revelations emerge about his connection and relationship with the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. We're heading now to London and joined by i24 News UK correspondent Jonathan Sacerdoti with more on this clearly a big deal alarming unfolding in the UK. Explain what he is reported to have done and his involvement with Epstein. This is one of the biggest political scandals to hit the UK in recent years and it's causing serious damage to Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government because Peter Mandelson, a powerful Labour veteran and a former EU
Commissioner, was appointed as UK Ambassador to Washington, but he was forced to resign after revelations about his long personal friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. And Mandelson has described the relationship as a terrible mistake. He stayed in contact though with Epstein even after his 2008 conviction for sex offenses and there were financial links between them as well that have come out. He strongly denies any wrongdoing, but he's currently under investigation by the Metropolitan Police for possible misconduct in public office which is a very serious allegation against him. And what's happening here is a massive dump of files including personal WhatsApp conversations from Mandelson's phone which will potentially be very embarrassing not just to the Prime
Minister and to Mandelson, but to many others including for example Wes Streeting who is currently trying to challenge Keir Starmer for leadership of the Labour Party and therefore of the country because he is known to have treated Mandelson as something of a mentor during his rise in politics and Mandelson has been something of a kingmaker in the history the recent history of the Labour Party and so some of those messages could potentially be embarrassing as well. So, um also what do you know, you may Okay, maybe he was associated with Epstein and what? I mean, I think we could put two and two together. Clearly, you know, it is all alleged, but uh is there, you know, belief that the former Prince Andrew and him uh were together on Epstein Island or other
places? Well, it is worth saying in what you've suggested there that Lord Mandelson is also well known for being gay. So, the allegations against him are unlikely to be involvement with any of the young women that Epstein trafficked, but regardless of that, the fact that he knew about Epstein's crimes and continued the friendship has obviously been extremely problematic and that Keir Starmer knew about this and knew various elements of the vetting that Mandelson had been through and what came out in all of this is that he appointed him to be ambassador anyway, the most sensitive diplomatic role in the UK, and the Prime Minister still pushed through that he should be appointed uh regardless of the fact that
he apparently failed his security vetting. And in terms [clears throat] of the royal family, in March 2026, newly released US Justice Department Epstein files included the first known photograph of Peter Mandelson with the former Prince Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and Jeffrey Epstein together. And the picture was believed to have been taken around 1999 to 2000 on Martha's Vineyard and shows the shows three men sitting casually at a table wearing bathrobes. And that's intensified scrutiny over the overlapping elite social circles both here in Britain and in America that Epstein was able to move in for many, many years.
Uh given that uh Starmer's uh you know, reputation is uh definitely seems to be waning. We know there's a lot of calls uh for resignation, the way he's handled uh you know, the violence against the Jewish community and investigations and whatnot. Why do you reckon he would still move forward to appoint him when I'm sure there's other candidates that could also do the job? Well, Starmer is facing heavy criticism with some calling for his resignation now, partly catalyzed by these Mandelson files, but also just generally as you point out, he's not a popular Prime Minister, hasn't been since the day he
won office. Peculiarly, he really won because he was the alternative to the conservatives who'd been in office for 14 years. But very quickly, the electorate and indeed many in his own party fell out with him no sooner that he became Prime Minister. And you know, some are now calling for his resignation because these documents show ministers and officials knew about Mandelson's Epstein connections and the reputational risks. Yet they appointed him anyway, it was still pushed through quickly. And many believe that it was cronyism. Mandelson's a long-time Labour insider and a political mentor to several senior figures. And Starmer has called it a wrong judgment and says he wasn't fully
briefed on the risks. He keeps claiming he just didn't know. So it's too early to say if this will end his premiership, but he has only been the Prime Minister since 2024.
