Lord Mandelson is a former British cabinet minister who was a central figure in New Labour. He served as Britain's ambassador to Washington, DC, appointed largely at the urging of Morgan McSweeney, Keir Starmer's most influential adviser.
In February 2025, when asked by the Financial Times about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, Lord Mandelson said: "I'm not going to go into this. It's an FT obsession and frankly you can all fuck off." He was fired on September 11th 2025 after emails emerged in which he questioned Epstein's conviction for procuring a minor. On January 30th 2026 a further tranche of emails revealed an intimate relationship: Lord Mandelson and Epstein giggled about strippers and joked about "a well hung young man", while discussing multi-million-dollar post-political jobs and casually leaking confidential government documents. While a British government minister, and shortly before embarking on a lucrative consulting career, Lord Mandelson appears to have shared sensitive information with Epstein about the euro-zone crisis and advice on how JPMorgan Chase might lobby the British government. The political embarrassment became a criminal investigation. The affair has been likened to that of John Profumo, the Tory minister whose exit over sex, lies and spies became the benchmark for government-crushing scandal.
Lord Mandelson was brought in to provide cynical steel to a Starmer government that lacked ballast. Former aides from the glory days of New Labour are scattered across the government. Before the Washington appointment, Lord Mandelson's relationship with the prime minister extended to offering advice from the sidelines and once suggesting on a podcast that Sir Keir was too fat. He was close to Morgan McSweeney, who pushed for him to land the plum job. Downing Street knew that a close relationship with Epstein had persisted long after Epstein's conviction.
Shortly before his firing, Lord Mandelson gave a speech casting Donald Trump's state visit to Britain as part of a civilisational struggle to prevent Chinese tech dominance. He now sits in the House of Lords.
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