Sir Keir Starmer has apologised to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, saying he was “sorry for having believed Mandelson’s lies” and for his decision to appoint him as the UK’s ambassador to Washington.
The Prime Minister said that “none of us knew the depth of the darkness” of Lord Mandelson’s relationship with the paedophile financier, accusing him of misleading officials during the vetting process, claiming Mandelson had given the impression that he “barely knew” Epstein.
The remarks come as the Prime Minister faces mounting pressure to dismiss his Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeney, over his role in Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador.
Downing Street has resisted calls to remove Sir Keir’s most senior aide, despite warnings from backbenchers that McSweeney’s continued presence could ultimately make the Prime Minister’s own position untenable.
Several MPs publicly suggested he would need to step down, including Rachael Maskell, John McDonnell and Barry Gardiner, but others have privately expressed doubts about the success of such a move without an obvious challenger.
They said Mr McSweeney has "got to go", and they were "really disappointed" that he has not already been fired.
Many expressed a lack of confidence in Sir Keir's No 10 team and pointed to Mr McSweeney. One Labour MP said that WhatsApp chats among backbenchers that are usually animated have gone "eerily quiet", and that the mood is "sombre" and suggested this could signal plotting behind the scenes.
Speaking at an event in East Sussex earlier today, Sir Keir addressed the scandal as he was fighting to save his premiership.
"It has been publicly known for some time that Mandelson knew Epstein, but none of us knew the depth of the darkness of that relationship," the PM said.
He stressed that Lord Mandelson during vetting was "asked directly" about the nature of his relationship with the convicted sex offender, whether he had stayed with Epstein after his conviction, and whether he had accepted gifts from the financier.
"The information now available makes clear that the answers he gave were lies,” the PM added.
"He portrayed Epstein as someone he barely knew.”
The Prime Minister then apologised to Epstein's victims.
"The victims of Epstein have lived with trauma that most of us can barely comprehend, and they've had to relive it again and again,” he said.
"I want to say this: I am sorry, sorry for what was done to you, sorry that so many people with power failed you, sorry for having believed Mandelson's lies and appointed him, and sorry that even now you're forced to watch this story unfold in public once again.”
He also vowed to bring to justice people who committed crimes as part of the Epstein scandal.
“In this country, we will not look away, we will not shrug our shoulders, and we will not allow the powerful to treat justice as optional,” he said.
"We will pursue the truth. We will uphold the integrity of public life, and we will do everything within our power and in the interests of justice to ensure accountability is delivered.
"That is what the public expects. That is what the victims deserve, and it is what I will do."
Sir Keir voiced his regrets as his premiership was engulfed in its biggest crisis yet over the Mandelson scandal.
MP Neil Duncan-Jordan said there was a "loss of trust and confidence in the No 10 operation" and Mr McSweeney is "clearly part of the problem".
The Labour MP for Poole said: "The Mandelson affair is just the latest, and probably biggest, issue, but it's not the first and if things don't change, it's unlikely to be the last."
Labour MP for Alloa and Grangemouth, Brian Leishman, told LBC that Mr McSweeney had to go. Asked whether Sir Keir would survive, he said: "It's a long way back for him."
Helena Dollimore, who represents the constituency of Hastings and Rye where Sir Keir gave his speech, said it showed his commitment to "accountability".
"I know everyone in the room today felt just how angry the Prime Minister is - and all of us in the Labour Party are - at the lies we were told by Peter Mandelson," she added.
"People heard very loudly that the PM is on the side of women and girls and his commitment to making sure there's accountability, because that's what Epstein's victims deserve."
But the speech did little to dampen anger among others, with one Labour MP saying: "Take your apology and stick it where the sun don't shine.
“It makes me sick to my stomach to hear them defend that." That MP said that "once Trump was elected they thought we need to have him and be damned with the risks", adding: "What part of Mandelson staying at the home of a paedophile did you not understand?"
The Prime Minister sent out loyalist Cabinet minister Steve Reed on Thursday to defend “as rational” his decision to appoint Lord Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the US.
But Sir Keir was facing job-threatening fury from Labour MPs over why he gave Lord Mandelson the top diplomatic job.
The Mandelson scandal has left the PM severely wounded ahead of the May elections for councils in England including in London, the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly.
Labour is widely expected by get a hammering in the elections, with MPs now increasingly predicting that Sir Keir could then face a leadership challenge.
Amid a frenzied atmosphere at Westminster, the Government was seeking to rush out the Mandelson files to show how the former peer “lied” during the vetting process for his appointment as ambassador and “covered-up the extent of his relationship” with Epstein, explained Mr Reed.
The Government was pinning its hopes on that once the Mandelson files are published that anger among Labour MPs will ease when they see the extent of his “lying”.
But Sir Keir faced the difficulty of explaining why Lord Mandelson was given the diplomatic post given that he was by then known to have stayed at Epstein’s New York home after his conviction.
“It was a rational appointment given Mandelson’s experience,” insisted Mr Reed, of ex-Business Secretary and former European Trade Commissioner Lord Mandelson.
Communities Secretary Mr Reed also rejected calls for the PM’s chief-of-staff Morgan McSweeney, who is believed to have pushed for Lord Mandelson’s appointment, to resign, stressing he had also been lied to by the former peer.
Sir Keir admitted at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday that he knew about Lord Mandelson’s ongoing friendship with the convicted paedophile when he appointed him, but said that the peer “lied repeatedly” about the extent of the relationship.
Downing Street then tried to control the release of potentially explosive documents, which provide insight into how the decision was made.
But in the face of a mutiny from Labour MPs, led by former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, the Government had to back down and cede control to Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) to decide what could be held back from being released into the public domain.
Lord Mandelson has been accused of sending market-sensitive financial information to Epstein when he was Business Secretary between 2009 and 2010 in Gordon Brown’s government.
The Met Police has launched a criminal investigation into allegations against Lord Mandelson of misconduct in public office and has asked No10 not to release documents which could jeopardise its inquiry.
The controversy surrounding Lord Mandelson, who has quit the House of Lords, resigned from the Labour Party, and been removed from the Privy Council, has led to intensifying questions about the Prime Minister’s judgement.
Labour MP Andy McDonald said he thought it was “reasonable to expect an answer pretty damn quick” on how Lord Mandelson passed vetting.
Labour peer Lord John Hutton, who served as a Cabinet minister under Sir Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, said he thought the handling of the scandal could mark the end of the Sir Keir’s time in office.
He told LBC it is “clearly” the end of Lord Mandelson’s career, but added that “it could well mark the end of the Prime Minister’s time in office”.
Meanwhile, Kemi Badenoch told ITV’s Peston she wanted Downing Street to provide the documents in “48 hours or so”.
The Tory leader said that someone must lose their job over the scandal.
Lord Mandelson has been approached for comment and while he has yet to speak publicly, the BBC said it understood he maintains he did not act criminally and that his actions were not for personal gain.
The BBC reported Lord Mandelson argues he had sought Epstein’s expertise in the national interest before the financial crisis.
The Epstein files also suggest that Lord Mandelson tried to secure a Russian visa for the financier, with an email exchange showing Epstein asked how he could get a visa, to which Lord Mandelson responds that “Ben can get visas thru OD”.
This is thought to refer to Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, the co-founder of Lord Mandelson’s lobbying firm Global Counsel, and Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
