Mandelson makes personal apology for continuing Epstein friendship

Following his release, Lord Mandelson has expressed concern for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein's decision to keep a friendship with the late paedophile after his detention. In a BBC interview on Sunday, the former cabinet minister faced criticism after he gave a limited apology for system failures that had let women down. Lord Mandelson continued:

I did not want to be held accountable for his [Jeffrey Epstein's] crimes, of which I was ignorant, not indifferent, because of the lies he told me and so many others,

he said in a tweet on Monday. "I was wrong to believe him following his arrest and to continue my contact with him afterwards. I apologise unequivocally for doing so to the women and girls who were hurt.

Last September, the government sacked Lord Mandelson as the country's ambassador. New details regarding the former ambassador's friendship with Epstein had surfaced, according to Downing Street. Lord Mandelson had been in touch with Epstein after the American financier's first trial in 2008, where he advised Epstein to clear his name in a series of supportive emails. Epstein's first arrest was part of a plea bargain he signed in Florida. Since pleaded guilty to two charges of soliciting girls as young as 14 years old for prostitution, he was sentenced to 18 months in jail. While waiting for a child trafficking trial in 2019, Epstein died in a New York jail cell. Lord Mandelson did not apologise for maintaining his friendship with Epstein in his first interview since being ambassador on the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, insisting that he would have done so if he were

in any way complicit or culpable. Mandelson said in the interview that he felt

kept separate

from Epstein's sex life because he is gay and denied seeing teenage girls at Epstein’s homes. Lord Mandelson said in a tweeting to BBC Newsnight that he had never been accused or complicit in his crimes. After his death, I learned the truth about him like everyone else.

But his victims knew what he was doing, their voices were not heard, and I am sorry I was one of those who trusted him over them.

Lord Mandelson told the BBC he had

relied on promises of [Epstein's] innocence, which later proved to be horribly inaccurate.

I still feel completely awful about my friendship with Epstein 20 years ago and the plight of his victims," he wrote to embassy workers following his dismissal.

The interview with Lord Mandelson on Sunday drew remark from government benches. Mandelson, according to one cabinet minister, was now

persona non grata. Another minister referred to his interview as

horrendous and toe curling. Lord Mandelson had not apologised at first, according to Labour peer Baroness Kennedy.

I'm glad he's come out tonight, and at least now is saying that his preoccupation was that people should know that he did not know and had been perplexed,

she told Newsnight.

Somebody like Peter Mandelson should have known better than to go on television and not to be apologizing to those women who have suffered so terribly,

she said.

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