U.K. Ambassador Peter Mandelson on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," May 11, 2025. CBS News

British Prime Minster Keir Starmer has fired his ambassador to the United States, long-time Labour Party politician Peter Mandelson, after days of revelations about Mandelson's years-long friendship with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"In light of the additional information in emails written by Peter Mandelson, the Prime Minister has asked the Foreign Secretary to withdraw him as Ambassador," the British government said in a statement released Thursday. "The emails show that the depth and extent of Peter Mandelson's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment. In particular Peter Mandelson's suggestion that Jeffrey Epstein's first conviction was wrongful and should be challenged is new information. In light of that, and mindful of the victims of Epstein's crimes he has been withdrawn as Ambassador with immediate effect."

Pressure began mounting on the U.K. government to take action when messages written by Mandelson,were released by the House Oversight Committee earlier this month as part of a redacted 2003 "birthday book" for Epstein.

They included a series of short notes accompanied by photos.

"Once upon a time, an intelligent, sharp-witted man they call 'mysterious' parachuted into my life," Mandelson wrote. "You would spend many hours just waiting for him to turn up… and often, no sooner were you getting used to having him around, you would suddenly be alone... again…"

With a photo of Mandelson setting a table alongside two women, whose faces were obscured, he wrote: "Leaving you with some 'interesting' friends to entertain instead."

Mandleson wrote that Epstein was known for "taking you by surprise... in one of his glorious homes he likes to share with his friends (yum yum)," and that "whenever he is in the world, he remains my best pal!"

The Wall Street Journal first reported the existence of Epstein's "birthday book" in July, prompting President Trump, who is also alleged to have written a message for Epstein in the book, to file a lawsuit against the newspaper and the owner of its parent company, Rupert Murdoch, seeking $10 billion in damages. Mr. Trump denies he wrote the message.

Epstein was first criminally indicted in 2006 on state felony charges of solicitation of prostitution in Florida, three years after the book was written.

Last week, when questioned about Mandelson's "birthday book" message, Prime Minister Starmer said Mandelson had "repeatedly expressed his deep regret" for his relationship with Epstein and "he is right to do so. I have confidence in him, and he is playing an important role in the UK-US relationship."

New revelations about Mandelson's communications with Epstein
On Wednesday, Bloomberg published a report based on 100 emails sent between Mandelson and Epstein between 2005 and 2010.

In those emails, which CBS News has not been able to verify itself, Epstein and Mandelson discussed his legal cases, and Mandelson expressed support for Epstein, offering to raise his situation with at least one of his contacts and encouraging Epstein to fight back using strategies from Sun Tzu's "Art of War."

In one email from 2008, published by Bloomberg, Mandelson wrote: "You have to be incredibly resilient, fight for early release and be philosophical about it as much as you can. The whole thing has been years of torture and now you have to show the world how big a person you are, and how strong."

In a podcast interview published Wednesday, Mandelson expressed his regret over his relationship with Epstein.

"I regret very much that I fell for his lies. I fell and accepted assurances that he had given me about his indictment, his original criminal case in Florida, like very many people, I took at face value what he said. With hindsight, with fresh information many years later, we realized that we had been wrong to believe him — he's a charismatic, criminal liar, we now see — and I regret very much indeed… I felt it like an albatross around my neck since his death," Mandelson said.

Mandelson said he had never witnessed Epstein committing any crimes.

"During all the time I was an associate of his, I never saw the wrongdoing. I never saw any evidence of criminal activity. I never sought and nor did he offer any introductions to women in the way that he allegedly did for others. Perhaps it's because I'm a gay man. Perhaps when I knew him all those years ago…When I was associated with him all those years ago, as I did with my then partner and now husband Reinaldo, we never, ever saw any evidence or sign of this activity which has since come to light," Mandelson said. "That's why I feel so profoundly upset by what has now been revealed about what he did to women and why I feel profoundly upset that I was taken in by him and continued my association with him for far longer than I should have done."

The now-former British ambassador said during his interview for the podcast that he expected his correspondence with Epstein to be made public.

"I have no doubt at all that there's a lot of traffic, correspondence, exchanges between us, absolutely, and we know those are going to surface, we know they're going to come out, we know they're going to be very embarrassing, and I know that I'm going profoundly to regret ever having met him and being introduced to him in the first place," Mandelson said. "But I can't rewrite history. What I can do is express my profound sympathy for those who were badly treated by him and secondly I can accept, yes I can accept, that I continued my association with him for too long."


President Trump along with Vice President JD Vance and Peter Mandelson, British Ambassador to the United States, address reporters in the Oval Office at the White House, May 8, 2025, in Washington, D.C.Anna Moneymaker/Getty

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