Wes Streeting has admitted he failed to take reports of Peter Mandelson’s links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein seriously when they emerged in 2023.
The health secretary, who has faced questions over his political relationship and friendship with the disgraced peer, said he “absolutely” questioned his own judgement on the matter and said there had been a political and media failure to ask enough questions about their relationship before Lord Mandelson took up his post as US ambassador.
Quizzed on what he knew in 2023 by the BBC’s Woman’s Hour, following the launch of the government’s new health strategy, Mr Streeting said he did not think reports at the time were credible.
He said: “I’ll be honest, you know, when people would pop up on social media, kind of laying those sorts of charges, they tended to be the sort of people who appear in your timeline trolling. I didn’t think it could be kind of credible… It really didn’t get much pickup. Like, I don’t remember that being a big story at the time.
“You just think, ‘Well, I haven’t seen that, really, from a credible resource’, [he] hasn’t been questioned by it. I think that must be overblown,” he said, noting that Mandelson still had a podcast and was still regularly appearing on “really big news programmes”.
He added: “That should not distract from this fundamental question, which is, ‘why did Peter Mandelson think it was appropriate to continue that relationship with Epstein, following his conviction?’ Why were not enough questions asked to Peter Mandelson about that? And that’s a political failure.
“It is also, I think, a media failure. I think it stems from the same root cause, which is those women, those girls, not being taken seriously enough, their experience not mattering enough, and being deprioritised, and that is exactly the sort of sexism, misogyny at the root of the issue, I’m afraid and I do feel, and I think all of us have to take responsibility for that.”
When pushed on whether he now questions his judgement on the matter, he said: “Oh, of course… absolutely and like, no doubt about that.”
Lord Mandelson was sacked as the UK’s ambassador to the US last year, and then resigned from the Labour Party and the House of Lords in March when fresh emails surfaced in the latest tranche of the so-called Epstein files in the US.
He was arrested in late February on suspicion of misconduct in public office, following claims he had leaked sensitive government information to Jeffrey Epstein when Lord Mandelson was business secretary under then-prime minister Gordon Brown.
Earlier in February, Mr Streeting published a series of texts between himself and Lord Mandelson, revealing his criticism of Sir Keir Starmer’s government, after Sky News suggested that he was “close friends” with Lord Mandelson.
The health secretary dismissed the claim as a “smear” by his critics within the party, although he admitted Lord Mandelson had helped him in the past, and he went on to delete social media posts with pictures of the two.
Mr Streeting told Woman’s Hour that allegations that Lord Mandelson leaked sensitive government documents were “serious and important” and said Gordon Brown “has every right to feel furious about that”.
A review of the government’s appointment of Lord Mandelson as ambassador is currently underway, and the first tranche of documents revealed that Sir Keir Starmer was warned in detail about the dangers of appointing him.
Papers detailing his employment show the prime minister was briefed that he had “close ties” with Epstein even after the paedophile financier was first convicted of procuring an underage girl in 2008, and that hiring him would bring a “general reputational risk” for his government.
The files make clear that Sir Keir ignored the warnings after his then-chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, and former director of communications, Matthew Doyle, who was described in the documents as a “personal friend” of Lord Mandelson, appeared to give support to the Labour peer.
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