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Peter Mandelson has issued an apology for his association with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein – after declining to do so in an interview broadcast on Sunday.
The Labour peer, who was sacked as US ambassador when details of his support for Epstein emerged in September, gave an interview to the BBC in which he suggested that as a gay man he knew nothing of the disgraced financier’s sex life.
On Monday night, Mandelson apologised “unequivocally” for associating with Epstein after his conviction.
In a statement, he said: “At the weekend, I gave an interview to the BBC. In answering questions about my association with Jeffrey Epstein I did not want to be held responsible for his crimes of which I was ignorant, not indifferent, because of the lies he told me and so many others.
“I want to say loudly and clearly that I was wrong to believe him following his conviction and to continue my association with him afterwards. I apologise unequivocally for doing so to the women and girls who suffered.
“I was never culpable or complicit in his crimes. Like everyone else I learned the full truth about him after his death.
“But his victims did know what he was doing, their voices were not heard and I am truly sorry I was amongst those who believed him over them.”
Lord Mandelson’s association with Epstein had long been known when Keir Starmer appointed the peer as US ambassador.
However, he was removed from his diplomatic post after No 10 said it had been unaware of emails from Mandelson to Epstein suggesting the financier’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a child for prostitution was wrongful and should be challenged.
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”.
In his interview with BBC One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the peer had sought to distance himself from Epstein, saying he was “at the edge of this man’s life”, despite “toe-curlingly embarrassing” emails showing his support and a birthday message describing him as his “best pal”.
The interview was Mandelson’s first broadcast appearance since being sacked from his diplomatic role in Washington in September last year.
He said: “I never saw anything in his life when I was with him, when I was in his homes, that would give me any reason to suspect what this evil monster was doing in preying on these young women.”
He added: “I think the issue is that because I was a gay man in his circle, I was kept separate from what he was doing in the sexual side of his life.”
In one of the emails released in September, Mandelson wrote to Epstein after his conviction saying: “I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened. I can still barely understand it.
“It just could not happen in Britain. You have to be incredibly resilient, fight for early release and be philosophical about it as much as you can.”
It continued: “Everything can be turned into an opportunity and that you will come through it and be stronger for it.”
The friendship between the two men came under a renewed spotlight after Democratic members of the US House oversight committee released Epstein’s 50th “birthday book”, in which Mandelson called him “my best pal” in a handwritten note.
