On January 11, 2026, Lord Peter Mandelson, the former UK ambassador to the United States and a prominent Labour Party grandee, made his first public appearance since being ousted from his diplomatic post in September 2025. The occasion was a high-profile interview with Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. The topic at hand: Mandelson’s controversial friendship with the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein, and his refusal to offer a direct apology to Epstein’s victims for his personal association with the disgraced American.
Mandelson’s appearance came amid a swirl of public and political scrutiny. Emails and texts published in September 2025 revealed a much closer relationship between Mandelson and Epstein than previously acknowledged. Among the revelations: Mandelson had described Epstein as his “best pal” in correspondence, advised him to “fight for early release” from jail, and told him, “I think the world of you,” the day before Epstein began his prison sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008. These details, brought to light through a bundle of correspondence assembled by Ghislaine Maxwell—Epstein’s former partner and co-conspirator—and submitted to a US House of Representatives committee, ultimately led to Mandelson’s dismissal from his ambassadorial role. According to the UK government, the “depth and extent” of Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein was “materially different” from what was understood at the time of his appointment.
During the BBC interview, Mandelson expressed regret for his association with Epstein, repeatedly calling it “a terrible mistake” and “misplaced loyalty.” He stated, “I believed his story and that of his lawyer that he had been falsely criminalised in his contact with these young women. Now I wish I had not believed that story.” Mandelson emphasized that he never witnessed any inappropriate behavior during his time with Epstein, insisting, “I can say this absolutely, I can say it to you categorically, I never saw anything in his life when I was with him, when I was in his hands, that would give me any reason to suspect what an evil monster this man was.”
Pressed by Kuenssberg on whether he would apologise to Epstein’s victims for continuing the friendship after Epstein’s conviction, Mandelson declined to do so directly. Instead, he offered an apology for the broader system that had failed to protect the women victimized by Epstein. “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,” Mandelson said. He added, “If I had known, if I was in any way complicit or culpable, of course I would apologise… but I was not culpable, I was not knowledgeable for what he was doing, and I regret, and will regret to my dying day, the fact that powerless women were not given the protection they were entitled to expect.”
Further distancing himself from Epstein’s crimes, Mandelson explained, “I think the issue is that because I was a gay man in his circle, I was kept separate from what he was doing in the sexual side of his life.” He maintained that he was “at the edge of this man’s life,” despite the damning evidence in the emails. “Do you really think that if I knew what was going on and what he was doing with and to these vulnerable young women, that I’d have just sat back and moved on and said, ‘Okay, that’s his—that’s his life’? I’d have done that? Do you think I’d have written emails like that if I had any knowledge or suspicion of what he was doing?” Mandelson challenged his interviewer.
The fallout from the interview was swift and fierce. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, appearing on the same BBC program, criticized Mandelson’s response, saying, “I think what we saw there in that interview was, at best, deep naivety from Peter Mandelson. And 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 and taken that opportunity.” Alexander added that the “breadth and the nature of the relationship that Peter Mandelson had with Jeffrey Epstein only became clear at the point at which those emails were published in September of last year, and that’s why the Prime Minister acted swiftly, took immediate action to remove him as the ambassador to the United States.” She concluded, “If I were in a position like Lord Mandelson with Epstein after his conviction, I wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole.”
Other political figures echoed Alexander’s frustration. SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn questioned why Mandelson retained his seat in the House of Lords, stating, “Says he had no knowledge of what Epstein was doing when he maintained he friendship with his ‘best pal’. Yet knew that Epstein had been convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor. Why are Labour continuing to allow this man to sit in the House of Lords?” Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell criticized the BBC for granting Mandelson a platform, calling it “a serious error of judgement.” Ex-Labour adviser Baroness Ayesha Hazarika described the interview as “a slap in the face to Epstein victims,” arguing, “He was part of the system of male power which enabled and dismissed abuse. The media went after Mandelson correctly in my view.”
Lord Kempsell, a former adviser to Boris Johnson, added a pointed observation on the media’s handling of the episode: “In editorial terms—if a Conservative or right-winger had been forced to resign as US ambassador over links to Epstein, there is no way they would be back on a prime political programme in three months for an interview largely not about that scandal. Only Mandelson can achieve that.”
Mandelson, for his part, accepted his dismissal, stating, “I understand why I was sacked. The emails that were published came as a huge surprise and a huge shock to me, not just to them. They no longer existed on my server I have long since disused. I was unable to share emails with them that I didn’t recall.” He also made clear that he had no intention of reopening or relitigating the issue, saying, “I understand why he [the Prime Minister] took the decision he did. But one thing I’m very clear about is I’m not going to seek to reopen or relitigate this issue. I’m moving on.”
Jeffrey Epstein, whose crimes and connections ensnared powerful figures on both sides of the Atlantic, died in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide, but the ramifications of his actions—and the networks that enabled them—continue to reverberate through British and international politics.
As the dust settles from Mandelson’s interview, the debate over personal responsibility, institutional accountability, and the enduring impact of Epstein’s crimes remains as heated as ever. For many, the episode serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of misplaced loyalty and the imperative for transparency and contrition from those in positions of power.
