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Summary
In his first TV interview since he was sacked as UK ambassador to the US in September, Peter Mandelson declined to apologise to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims for remaining friends with the late paedophile financier after his conviction but told the BBC he was sorry for “a system” that meant Epstein’s victims were ignored. Mandelson said he had paid a “calamitous” price in being sacked over his association with “evil monster” Epstein.
Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 and served time in jail but Mandelson said he had believed his excuses and continued to support him out of “misplaced loyalty” and “a most terrible mistake on my part”.
Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said it would have gone “a long way” for Mandelson to have apologised for his friendship with Epstein and accused him of “deep naivety”.
In his wide-ranging BBC interview, Peter Mandelson also said he liked Donald Trump’s “graciousness” and “directness” and said he believed the US would not take control of Greenland by military force. This followed a report in the Telegraph that said Downing Street was talking with European allies about possibly deploying a military force to Greenland in the hope of reducing the likelihood of Donald Trump trying to seize control of the self-governing Danish territory.
The Conservative party said it would ban under-16s from accessing social media platforms if they were in government, heaping pressure on Labour to take a similar line.
The Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who has also proposed for phones to be banned in schools, told the BBC this morning that social media platforms were profiting from children’s “anxiety” and “distraction” and were “designed to be addictive”.
The Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, appeared to endorse the Conservative Party’s plan to ban under-16s from social media, saying “parents would welcome a cross-party consensus around much bolder action”.
It came after one of the UK’s biggest teaching unions, NASUWT, called on the government to ban social media for under-16s over concerns about mental health and concentration.
Asked about the protests in Iran, Kemi Badenoch said she would “not have an issue” with seeing the Iranian regime removed and that it could be right for the US and its allies to be involved in that process. Heidi Alexander, meanwhile, said the UK wants to see a peaceful transition of power in Iran, where protests have been met with a violent police response.
Updated
