Lord Mandelson has said he never saw girls at Jeffrey Epstein’s properties, and declined to apologise to the late paedophile’s victims for maintaining his friendship with the American because he was not “knowledgeable of what he (Epstein) was doing”.
In his first interview since being sacked as the UK’s ambassador to the US over his links to Epstein, he told the he thought he had been “kept separate” from the sexual side of the late financier’s life because he was gay.
He was fired after emails emerged showing supportive messages he had sent to Epstein after the American was convicted for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
The former ambassador said he would have apologised if he were “in any way complicit or culpable” but stressed that was never the case.
Epstein, a well-connected financier, died in a New York prison cell in 2019 awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He had prevously been convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution from a minor, for which he was registered as a sex offender.
Asked on ‘s One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg whether he would like to apologise to Epstein’s victims for continuing the friendship after that first conviction, 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”.
“That system gave him protection and not them.
“If I had known, if I was in any way complicit or culpable, of course I would apologise for it. But I was not culpable, I was not knowledgeable of what he was doing.”
He continued: “I regret and will regret to my dying day the fact that powerless women, women who were denied a voice, were not given the protection they were entitled to expect.”
Lord Mandelson, whose tenure as ambassador lasted just a few months, was also asked in the interview about his views on US President Donald Trump’s ongoing comments about his country needing to “own” Greenland.
He said he did not believe Trump would “land on Greenland and take it by force”, adding: “He’s not going to do that. I don’t know, but I’m offering my best judgement as somebody who’s observed him at fairly close quarters. He’s not a fool.”
Asked about his long friendship with Epstein over the decades, Lord Mandelson said he believed he was “kept separate from what [Epstein] was doing in the sexual side of his life” because of his own sexuality.
“Possibly some people will think because I am a gay man… I wasn’t attuned to what was going on. I don’t really accept that.”
The government sacked Lord Mandelson as its ambassador to the US after emails showed he had been in contact with Epstein after his first conviction, offering him support.
Number 10 sources said at the time that he had been “economical with the truth” before he was appointed and they were not aware of the “depth” of their relationship.
On Sunday, Lord Mandelson said he understood why he had been sacked.
“I’ve been there. So I understand why he [the prime minister] took the decision. But one thing I’m very clear about is that I’m not going to seek to reopen or relitigate this issue. I’m moving on.”
In response, Downing Street said the emails showed the “depth and extent” of the relationship was “materially different” to what they had known when appointing Lord Mandelson, particularly his “suggestion that Jeffrey 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.”
