Minister defends PM’s handling of Mandelson appointment

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Richard WheelerPolitical reporter

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A senior minister has defended Sir Keir Starmer’s handling of Lord Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador despite acknowledging it caused “damage” to the government.

Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds told the BBC Sir Keir “accepted making a mistake” but had responded by trying to make reforms to the “very structures of power in our society”.

Documents released by the government showed Sir Keir was warned the peer’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein posed a “reputational risk” before he was confirmed as US ambassador.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has said Labour MPs should consider whether Sir Keir is “fit to run our country” after being “dishonest” about what he knew.

Sir Keir has said he did not know the extent and depth of the pair’s relationship when Lord Mandelson was appointed in December 2024.

The peer began the ambassadorial role in February 2025 but was sacked in September after Downing Street said new information about the depth of his relationship with Epstein had emerged.

The newly-released documents show advice sent to the prime minister said Lord Mandelson and Epstein’s relationship continued after the financier’s conviction for procuring an underage girl in 2008.

A due diligence document sent to the PM on 11 December 2024 - nine days before he was confirmed as ambassador - raised a number of issues which could pose a “reputational risk”.

It highlighted a 2019 report commissioned by US bank JP Morgan which found Epstein appeared to “maintain a particularly close relationship” with Lord Mandelson.

The document notes that the peer reportedly stayed in Epstein’s house while the financier was in jail in June 2009.

Thomas-Symonds told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the document “prompted the prime minister to seek assurances, to ask questions”.

The initial batch of documents released by the government does not include a series of follow-up questions that Number 10 sent to Lord Mandelson about his relationship with Epstein.

Police asked Downing Street not to publish the exchanges yet to avoid prejudicing their ongoing investigation.

Pressed on concerns about the suitability of Lord Mandelson for the role and warnings of reputational risk, Thomas-Symonds replied: “Previous Labour prime ministers have also taken a chance on appointing Peter Mandelson to particular roles.”

He said Sir Keir has not sought to move on from the issue but instead is “understanding the damage that it has done and then putting in place changes to public life, to the very structures of power in our society … that have ignored what has happened to women and girls at the hands of powerful men”.

Lord Mandelson remains of the view that he did not lie to the prime minister, does not recall being asked questions about Epstein face-to-face during vetting interviews and answered written questions about his contact with the sex offender after his conviction truthfully and fully.

The peer has long argued that he accepted Epstein and his lawyer’s version of events and only discovered the truth after his death in 2019.

He resigned from the Labour Party in February and was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office weeks later, over allegations he had passed market-sensitive government information to Epstein when he was a minister.

He remains under police investigation but his bail conditions were lifted last week.

Lord Mandelson has repeatedly let it be known that he believes he has not acted criminally, did not act for personal gain and is cooperating with the police.

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