Scandal at Washington embassy

Peter Mandelson’s excellent relations with US President Donald Trump could not save his job as UK’s ambassador in Washington. Guilt by association owing to his close friendship with the notorious American paedophile Jeffrey Epstein forced the UK prime minister to sack him.

At one level, Mandelson was an inspired choice for ambassador at the court of Donald Trump. The exact opposite of Sir Kim, now Lord, Darroch, a career diplomat who mocked Trump and was sacked as UK ambassador in 2019 at his behest. But, Mandelson was a sycophant par excellence.

Political appointments as UK ambassador in Washington do not have a happy history. The most controversial appointment before Lord Mandelson’s was that of Peter Jay in 1977. He was a clever economist and TV presenter, son of Labour cabinet minister Douglas Jay, who was married to Margaret, now Baroness Jay, daughter of James Callaghan, UK prime minister 1975-79.

David Owen was Callaghan’s foreign minister and he appointed Peter Jay to be UK ambassador in Washington. The appointment smacked of nepotism and ended in tears.

Margaret Jay ran off with well-known Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein whose jilted wife Nora Ephron wrote a novel about the affair called Heartburn, later made into a film starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson that was very embarrassing all round.

Not to be outdone, Peter Jay had an affair with the embassy nanny. In the end, the scandal at the embassy and the nepotism surrounding his appointment did not make his tenure a happy one – eventually the couple divorced, Margaret prospered as a Labour peer and Peter retired to oblivion until he died last year.

Like the Jays, Mandelson is Labour aristocracy. His grandfather was Herbert Morrison who was deputy prime minister, interior and foreign minister during the gifted Labour administration of 1945-51 that set up the welfare state and the NHS.

He first came into prominence as director of communications when Labour was in opposition and became known as ‘Master of the Dark Arts’ and ‘Prince of Darkness’ for his ruthless news management and behind-the-scenes manoeuvres that enabled New Labour to return to power between 1997 and 2010. 

Mandelson was trade minister in 1998 and 2008-10 and minister responsible for Northern Ireland 1999-01. He was also EU trade commissioner 2004-08 and although he was forced to resign twice in 1998 and 2001, he survived and thrived and became the darling of the rich and famous after Labour lost power in 2010.

Like Tony Blair, he loves wealth and the wealthy and sees nothing wrong in serving God and mammon. Or as he put it on a visit to Silicon Valley billionaires in 1998, “I am relaxed about people getting filthy rich so long as they paid their taxes.”

Jeffrey Epstein was a filthy rich New Yorker. He was a financier and fund manager who made his money advising and investing money for the rich and famous. He died in prison in 2019 while waiting to be tried for federal sexual offences of trafficking underage girls.

The Epstein saga has had persistent repercussions in America that threaten to engulf Trump himself for reneging on an election promise to have the Epstein prosecution file disclosed to the public.

Recently released emails from the Epstein file to the House of Representatives show that Mandelson was sending birthday greetings to Epstein in 2003 on his 50th birthday, which he signed off as his “best pal.”

Nothing much turns on those emails because Epstein had not been convicted of any criminal offences involving underage girls in 2003, and in any case as a gay man, Mandelson would not have been involved in Epstein’s nefarious activities.

Epstein pleaded guilty to trafficking an underage girl in 2008 as a result of a plea bargain that sometimes muddies moral blameworthiness in crime. Mandelson’s sin, as that of Prince Andrew, who was also relieved of his duties as a result of his association with Epstein, was to stand by Epstein knowing he went to prison for soliciting an underage girl for sex in 2008.

Mandelson tried to excuse his relationship in 2008 by saying that Epstein was “a charismatic criminal liar” and that he “fell for his lies,” in an attempt to explain his vigorous support of him and staying at his New York flat while Epstein did time.

Epstein is, of course, as discredited as he is dead. But could Mandelson have naively allowed himself to be persuaded that Epstein’s guilty plea in 2008 was as a result of an unjust plea bargain? After all in the US defendants are frequently pressured to plead guilty to lesser offences to avoid the risk of being convicted of more serious ones.

Mandelson was very supportive of Epstein despite his plea of guilty but was this because he fell for his lies that his guilty plea was not an admission of guilt but the result of prosecutorial pressure?

It just about sounds plausible, except that it is difficult to believe that Mandelson the ‘Master of the Dark Arts’ and the ‘Prince of Darkness’ could have been fooled by Epstein who was well known for his penchant for sex with underage girls and pimping for his wealthy clients.

Mandelson’s downfall and indeed the prime minister Keir Starmer’s vigorous support of his embattled ambassador last week raises an ethical question even though it is no consolation to the victims of Epstein’s crimes.

Do you cancel a friend guilty of serious crime or who has done something wrong and throw him or her to the wolves?