Mandelson

The family of Virginia Giuffre, who became the most prominent victim of Jeffrey Epstein, has told the BBC that Lord Mandelson should never have been given the position of UK ambassador to the United States.

In an exclusive interview on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Sky Roberts, Virginia’s brother said, “absolutely not, he should never have been given the position in the first place.

“It speaks to how deep the corruption goes in our systems. Whether that’s linked to the UK, US or abroad.”

There is no suggestion that Lord Mandelson ever met Giuffre. He said last week, that “perhaps as a gay man”, he never sought or was offered introductions to women from Epstein.

Virginia Giuffre alleged that she was abused by Jeffrey Epstein after she met Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite, in 2000 while working as a locker room attendant at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach.

In 2001, at the age of 17, she said Epstein brought her to London and introduced her to Prince Andrew, who she claimed sexually abused her three times. The prince, who has denied all claims against him, reached an out-of-court settlement with her in 2022 which contained no admission of liability or apology.

After many years of campaigning, she had become the most prominent victim of Jeffrey Epstein. Giuffre took her own life in April.

Giuffre’s sister-in-law, Amanda Roberts, told the BBC, “why does it take us to have to pull out the skeletons for people to be held accountable? Our governments have allowed these people to hold their status and their title without shame”.

“He should never have been given that title. We have to put the spotlight on them. It’s unfair we continuously pull these skeletons out, that survivors have to continuously point the finger for us to do the right thing”.

Neither Downing Street nor Lord Mandelson wished to comment.

Lord Mandelson was sacked by the Prime Minister this week, after a cache of emails between Mandelson and Epstein was published by Bloomberg, in which the peer urged Epstein to fight for early release, and revealed the extent of their contacts and relationship.

Mr Roberts, Virginia’s younger brother, said that the firing of Mandelson was a “step in the right direction” but “the reality is that’s not nearly enough”.

Referencing Jeffrey Epstein’s birthday book, to which Peter Mandelson contributed several pages along with dozens of other contributors he added, “there are still people out there, still people in that book who could be doing this to other young women and children right now.”

Entries from 40 people, divided into several categories such as “friends”, “business”, “science” and “Brooklyn”, were published, though the names under “family” and “girl friends” were redacted.

These people are not accused of any legal wrongdoing in connection with Epstein’s case.

The family’s first UK interview will be broadcast on Sunday with LK on Sunday – As well as Lord Mandelson they discuss Epstein, Donald Trump and Prince Andrew, and their hope for Virginia’s legacy.

Sign up for the Off Air with Laura K newsletter to get Laura Kuenssberg’s expert insight and insider stories every week, emailed directly to you.

Officials at No 10 and the Foreign Office were aware of supportive emails between Lord Mandelson and paedophile Jeffrey Epstein when the prime minister initially defended the former ambassador on Wednesday, the BBC understands.

Sources stressed Sir Keir was not aware of the contents of the emails when he stood by Lord Mandelson at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.

The BBC understands that a media enquiry outlining details of the messages between the pair was sent to the Foreign Office on Tuesday, and passed on to No 10.

Sir Oliver Robbins, permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office, asked Lord Mandelson about the emails on Tuesday but did not receive a response until the next day.

Backbench Labour MP Olivia Blake called No 10’s reported handling of the situation “really embarrassing”.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Saturday: “Any operation that fails to tell a prime minister when something as substantial as those emails were presented to them clearly has deep failings.”

Blake added: “Whoever is gatekeeping the information to the prime minister needs to stop, and they need to be getting things to him much earlier so that he can get on top of it.”

Asked whether Lord Mandelson should be required to leave the House of Lords, Blake said it was something “we should be considering”.

Lord Mandelson was sacked as the UK’s ambassador to the US shortly before 11:00 on Thursday. Downing Street said the emails contained “new information” that was not known at the time of Lord Mandelson’s appointment.

The full emails were published by Bloomberg and the Sun on Wednesday evening.

“I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened,” Mandelson wrote the day before Epstein reported to prison in 2008 for soliciting sex from a minor.

Mandelson added: “You have to be incredibly resilient, fight for early release… Your friends stay with you and love you.”

In an interview with the Sun on Wednesday, Lord Mandelson said he felt a “tremendous sense of regret” that he had met Epstein, and that he “took at face value the lies that he fed me and many others”.

The BBC earlier reported that Lord Mandelson’s emails were sent from an old account to which he no longer had access. Officials cite this as the reason they had not been seen earlier.

In a statement announcing Lord Mandelson’s dismissal, the Foreign Office said: “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.”

Following his sacking, Mandelson said being the UK’s ambassador to the US had been “the privilege of my life”.

It comes as Sir Keir faces growing pressure over his handling of Lord Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US.

Labour MP Clive Lewis, an outspoken voice on the Labour left, said Sir Keir “doesn’t seem up to the job”, adding that there was a “very, very dangerous atmosphere” among Labour MPs.

Another Labour MP Jo White said the “clock is ticking” for Sir Keir to turn polls around before local elections next May.

Labour MP Emily Thornberry, chair of the foreign affairs committee, has written to the new Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper asking for details on the vetting process for Lord Mandelson’s appointment, and whether security concerns were dismissed.

Thornberry’s letter was first reported by Sky News.

It also emerged that Jeffrey Epstein paid for Lord Mandelson’s travel on two separate occasions in 2003 totalling more than $7,400 (£5,400), according to documents released by the US House of Representatives Oversight Committee.

Earlier this week, US lawmakers released an alleged “birthday book” containing messages sent to Jeffrey Epstein on his 50th birthday in 2003 – including one from Lord Mandelson.

In his letter, which features photos of the pair, Lord Mandelson described Jeffrey Epstein as his “best pal”, and an “intelligent, sharp-witted man”.

Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander has said Labour MPs will be feeling “despondent” following a chaotic week which has seen the sacking of Lord Mandelson and the resignation of Angela Rayner.

Sir Keir Starmer is facing questions over why he appointed Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the US despite his known links to the convicted paedophile Jeffery Epstein.

The government said Mandelson was dismissed after emails were published which appear to show the Labour peer offering Epstein support after his conviction.

MPs and government insiders are increasingly blaming the prime minister’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney for the appointment.

Several senior Labour figures claimed that McSweeney had been resisting the inevitability of Mandelson’s departure on Wednesday, with one insider describing “cold, hard fury” amongst those in Downing Street about the episode.

However, another senior Downing Street source claimed this was nonsense, saying that by Wednesday afternoon McSweeney was adamant that Mandelson’s position was untenable.

A government minister said they were “starting to wonder how sustainable it is” for McSweeney to stay in post.

One Labour MP said: “Panic has started to set in”, urging the prime minister to “get a grip” and warning that only publishing correspondence between No 10, McSweeney and Lord Mandelson before his appointment as ambassador would “put this to bed”.

Another Labour MP said “It’s quite clear the buck should stop with him [McSweeney].

“When Sue Gray was chief of staff [Mandelson] wasn’t even on the short list. It’s just disgusting.”

One other said the handling of the situation had been “a shambles”.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander said: “In retrospect, of course, if (it) had been known at the time what is known now, the appointment wouldn’t have been made.”

Acknowledging it had been a difficult week for Labour he said: “Many of us were devastated by [deputy PM] Angela Rayner’s departure from the government last week.

“She’s an extraordinary woman who’s overcome the most extraordinary challenges and we are grieving and feel quite acutely that sense of loss.

“Now to have the dismissal of Peter Mandelson just the next week, I totally get it, of course Labour MPs will be despondent that in two weeks in a row we have seen significant resignations from public service.

“These are not the headlines any of us in government or in Parliament would have chosen or wanted.

“But the fact is when the evidence emerged, action had to be taken and we are looking forward, therefore, to moving on.”

Conservative frontbencher Alex Burghart said his party would force a vote in Parliament to release the documents that the prime minister and the foreign secretary were shown before appointing Lord Mandelson.

“Those documents exist, they will be on file… it’s inconceivable they would not have been shown concerns raised by the security services through the vetting process,” he told BBC Breakfast.

The Liberal Democrats have said there should be a review of vetting procedures.

Paula Barker – who dropped out of the deputy Labour leader race on Thursday – said: “The delay in sacking him has only served to further erode the trust and confidence in our government and politics in the round.”

Charlotte Nichols said Mandelson’s sacking was “not immediate enough unfortunately, as he should never have been appointed in the first place”.

Sadik Al-Hassan said there were “serious questions about the vetting process of the ambassador”.

Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage said Lord Mandelson was “an enormously talented bloke” but his appointment “was a serious misjudgement from the prime minister.”

He said it “is about the prime minister’s judgement but also about the role that Morgan McSweeney plays in this government” adding: “I think McSweeney’s role is now considerably in doubt.”

Some Labour MPs have publicly expressed anger at how the situation with Mandelson has been handled.

Lord Mandelson’s association with Epstein was publicly known when he was given the Washington job.

However, at the start of the week, US lawmakers published documents from Epstein’s estate including 2003 birthday messages from Mandelson in which he refers to Epstein as “my best pal”.

Sir Keir initially stood by Lord Mandelson and on Wednesday said “due process” had been followed in his appointment.

But the following day he decided to sack his ambassador.

It came after a series of emails from Lord Mandelson to Epstein were published by the Sun and Bloomberg.

The emails included supportive messages Mandelson sent after Epstein had pleaded guilt to soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008.

In one message, Mandelson is reported to have told Epstein to “fight for early release” and, the day before began his sentence, “I think the world of you.”

The BBC has been told the information published on Wednesday evening was not available to those in government when Lord Mandelson was appointed, as they came from what has been described as a “long closed” email address.

Douglas Alexander said he felt “incredulity and revulsion” when he read the emails, which he said “had not in any way reached the prime minister” during the appointment process.

“When that reached the prime minister’s desk, he acted and dismissed the ambassador.”

He said Lord Mandelson had initially been appointed because the UK needed an “unconventional ambassador” to work with Donald Trump’s “unconventional presidential administration”.

James Roscoe, the deputy head of the Washington embassy, has been appointed as interim ambassador ahead of the US President’s state visit to the UK next week.

Additional reporting by political correspondents Nick Eardley and Georgia Roberts