Keir Starmer finally offered a grovelling mea culpa on the Mandelson debacle today as he fights to contain Labour fury.

The PM admitted it was ‘me that made the mistake’ after shamelessly leaving junior ministers to field a backlash in the Commons yesterday.

On a visit to Belfast, Sir Keir added that meant he was the one who had to ‘make the apology to the victims of Epstein’. 

The comments came after papers showed government vetting highlighted Mandelson’s ‘close’ friendship with Jeffrey Epstein before he was made US ambassador.

The top mandarin at the Foreign Office and national security adviser Jonathan Powell also expressed misgivings during the process. 

Kemi Badenoch has complained of a ‘cover up’ and urged Labour MPs to oust Sir Keir, with backbenchers accusing the premier of ‘dragging the party into the gutter’.  

The government promised to publish a huge range of information about Mandelson after MPs rebelled in a Commons vote last month.

Sir Keir said: ‘The release of the information shows what was known.

‘That led to further questions being asked.

‘Unfortunately, because of the Metropolitan Police investigation, we can’t release that information yet.

‘But that doesn’t take away from the fact that it was me that made a mistake, and it’s me that makes the apology to the victims of Epstein, and I do that.’

In other developments today:

• Mandelson has been formally removed from the Privy Council after a meeting chaired by the King this week;
• Calls have been growing for Mandelson to hand back a £75,000 payoff he received after being ousted as ambassador;  
• The documents show the peer’s employment did not formally end until October 16 last year – more than a month after Sir Keir said he would have to leave his post on September 11. His salary over that period would have been around £13,000.      

 

Initially Sir Keir tried to put the Cabinet Secretary in charge of deciding what could be released – but was made to hand that task to Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee. 

The documents confirm that Sir Keir was aware when he appointed Mandelson in December 2024 that his friendship with paedophile financier Epstein continued after he was convicted. 

In December 2024, a note from a senior aide to the premier stated that Sir Keir and chief of staff Morgan McSweeney had expressed a ‘preference for a political candidate’ to be Washington envoy and Mandelson was the ‘lead candidate’.

It said the Director of Communications – Matthew Doyle at the time – had been ‘satisfied’ with Mandelson’s responses about his relationship with Epstein.

A three-page ‘due diligence’ report supplied on December 11, 2024 to Sir Keir flagged the ties between Mandelson and Epstein.

It referred to reports of Epstein’s ‘particularly close relationship with Prince Andrew the Duke of York and Lord Peter Mandelson’ and said their contact continued through the 2000s.

The summary stated: ‘After Epstein was first convicted of procuring an underage girl in 2008, their relationship continued across 2009-2011, beginning when Lord Mandelson was Business Minister and continuing after the end of the Labour government. 

‘Mandelson reportedly stayed in Epstein’s House while he was in jail in June 2009.’ 

It also mentioned that in 2014 Mandelson ‘agreed to be a ”founding citizen” of an ocean conservation group founded by Ghislaine Maxwell, and funded by Epstein.’ 

Downing Street insisted the ongoing police investigation into Mandelson means it is unable to release details about what questions the peer was asked.

The Government has agreed a framework with the Metropolitan Police on which documents can be released without prejudicing the ongoing police investigation into the peer. 

Mrs Badenoch claimed that ‘a lot of information is missing’ from the files, pointing to an empty box she said Sir Keir was required to fill beneath advice he received in 2024 about the appointment.

No 10 said no notes by Sir Keir were redacted.

His official spokesman told reporters: ‘I refute the suggestion of a cover up. The Government’s complied fully. I just don’t accept that it’s the case at all.

‘There are a range of different ways in which the Prime Minister’s senior team responds to advice.

He added: ‘The Prime Minister did read the advice, but clearly there are lessons to be learned on the wider appointment processes, and the processes that led up to them.’

Mandelson was handed a £75,000 payoff when he was removed as US ambassador in September last year, in the wake of a tranche of Epstein’s personal emails being leaked. 

The disgraced former Cabinet minister had apparently demanded £547,000 compensation for losing his £161,000 a year job and threatening legal action.

Despite the PM claiming in Parliament that Mandelson ‘lied’ during his vetting, the government privately assessed that there was no evidence of ‘misconduct in role that would give rise to normal disciplinary proceedings’. 

Foreign Office permanent secretary Olly Robbins wrote of the package: ‘This represents good value for money.’ Other officials congratulated each other on getting the sum – including £34,000 severance as well as cash in lieu of notice – ‘so low’. 

Extraordinarily, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, James Murray, responded that he was ‘happy’ to sign the payment off. 

Mr Thomas-Symonds told Sky News this morning: ‘I frankly share the moral outrage that Peter Mandelson is still in possession of that £75,000.

‘Now you can look at the documents, you can see on a value for money basis why that decision was made. There was an original request for £547,000 that was negotiated down to £75,000…

‘But from a moral point of view, it is incredibly difficult to even think that that money is still being retained.

‘So what I would say is, do the decent thing, do the honourable thing, donate that money to charity. And I would suggest perhaps a charity supporting victims might be appropriate.’

Lord Mandelson was arrested on February 23 on suspicion of misconduct in public office, having been accused of passing sensitive information to Epstein during his time as business secretary under Gordon Brown.

He was subsequently bailed, but later handed his passport back and freed under investigation. He has denied any criminal wrongdoing or acting for personal gain.