Sir Keir Starmer has said he would “never” have appointed Peter Mandelson as his ambassador to the US if he had known the full details of his relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In his first comments since sacking Lord Mandelson, Sir Keir said the Labour peer went through a proper due diligence process before his appointment, but he added: “Had I known then what I know now, I’d have never appointed him.”
Sir Keir gave public backing to Lord Mandelson in the Commons on Wednesday only to sack him the following day.
Opposition MPs will get a chance to put further pressure on the government after the Speaker granted the Tories an emergency debate on the appointment on Tuesday.
Emails reported by Bloomberg showed supportive messages Lord Mandelson sent to Epstein in 2008 following his guilty plea.
The leaked emails included passages in which Lord Mandelson told Epstein to “fight for early release” shortly before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
He is also reported to have told Epstein “I think the world of you” the day before the disgraced financier began his sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008.
Speaking to reporters, Sir Keir said the messages showed Lord Mandelson “was not only questioning but wanting to challenge the conviction of Epstein at the time”.
Lord Mandelson’s emails “cut across the whole approach that I’ve taken on violence against women and girls for many years and this government’s”, he added.
The emails showed “the nature and extent of the relationship that Peter Mandelson had with Epstein was far different to what I had understood to be the position when I appointed him.”
Sir Keir added he was “not at all” satisfied with Lord Mandelson’s responses to questions “put to him by government officials”.
The prime minister has faced questions about his judgment in appointing the peer, whose friendship with Epstein was public knowledge, in the first place.
Sir Keir insisted he did not know what was in the emails when he defended the US ambassador at Prime Minister’s Questions but said he knew Foreign Office officials had asked Lord Mandelson questions about the email.
The scandal, coming so soon after Angela Rayner’s resignation as deputy prime minister, has encouraged some Labour MPs to become more vocal about their frustrations with the prime minister’s leadership and the wider Downing Street operation.
On Monday Sir Keir faced a further blow, when one of his senior aides, Paul Ovenden, resigned after the leaking of explicit messages about veteran MP Diane Abbott from eight years ago.
The debate in Parliament could prove damaging for Sir Keir’s efforts to draw a line under the scandal ahead of US President Donald Trump’s state visit this week, and the Labour conference at the end of the month.
Labour MPs are expressing public and private frustration with the prime minister’s leadership.
The Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Labour MP Dame Emily Thornberry, has demanded the government give evidence on how Lord Mandelson was cleared and appointed.
Labour backbencher Richard Burgon told Radio 4’s Today programme Sir Keir would be “gone” if May’s elections in Scotland, Wales and parts of England go badly for Labour.
The Conservatives have also demanded the prime minister release documents relating to Mandelson’s appointment.
In the letter to the prime minister, Tory MP Alex Burghart questioned what and when Sir Keir knew of Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein before defending the former ambassador during Prime Minister’s Questions last Wednesday.