Leaked emails first reported by The Sun show that Mandelson, now the UK’s ambassador to the US, told Epstein in 2008: “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.”
READ MORE: Peter Mandelson faces calls to quit over Jeffrey Epstein letter
An email between Epstein and Mandelson’s private email addresses went on: “Everything can be turned into an opportunity and that you will come through it and be stronger for it.
“The whole thing has been years of torture and now you have to show the world how big a person you are, and how strong.”
The explosive revelations come with Mandelson fighting for his job after a “birthday book” compiled by convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell for Epstein’s 50th in 2003 showed him fawning over the paedophile as his “best pal”.
Downing Street, meanwhile, repeatedly evaded questions on how much the Prime Minister knew about the former Labour minister’s association with Epstein at the time of his appointment.
Emails reported earlier in 2025, released due to a Financial Conduct Authority tribunal case, suggested that Mandelson kept in touch with Epstein until at least 2012.
In an email sent from the paedophile to then-JP Morgan chief executive Jes Staley in May 2012, Epstein wrote: “Peter Mandelson here at 5 – staying a couple of days.”
READ MORE: Wes Streeting defends Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
Mandelson forwarded a separate email to Epstein in August 2012, leading to media reports that the Labour peer had been in contact with the paedophile until “at least” that date.
The Times reported that emails from Epstein had further suggested that Mandelson previously stayed at his house in Manhattan in 2009 – while the financier was serving jail time for procuring a child for prostitution.
Epstein pleaded guilty to procuring for prostitution a girl below age 18 and was sentenced to 18 months in jail in June 2008.
In 2023, a spokesperson for Mandelson said: “He never had any kind of professional or business relationship with Epstein in any form.”
Sharing the quote on social media, senior Tory MP Alicia Kearns said: “A lie. Starmer needs to show leadership. Yvette [Cooper, the Foreign Secretary] needs to sack him. [Foreign Affairs Committee chair Emily] Thornberry needs to do her job.
“The fact is Peter Mandelson thinks it is case closed but it really isn’t for the many, many women who have been trafficked, exploited and raped by Epstein and for those of us shamed by his representing our country.”
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch had used Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday to focus on Mandelson and Epstein, asking why the UK’s US ambassador was giving an interview about himself rather than focusing on Nato’s response to Russian aggression.
After the latest emails were reported, Badenoch said: “These are sickening revelations.
“Mandelson’s position is untenable. Why did Starmer defend him today? How was ‘full due process followed’?
“This a weak Prime Minister, leading a government mired in scandal. The public deserves better. Peter Mandelson needs to be fired now.”
Speaking to The Sun’s Harry Cole, Mandelson said he regrets “very, very deeply indeed carrying on” the association with Epstein “for far longer than I should have done”.
When asked whether he had continued a business or personal relationship with Epstein after he was charged with criminal offences, Mandelson did not deny he maintained a form of relationship with him – responding: “It was not a business relationship.”
Deputy Labour leader candidate Bell Ribeiro-Addy told the i newspaper there should be an investigation into a deal Mandelson made with Epstein during his time as business secretary.
She said he should resign if he is found to have broken the ministerial code following the sale of a UK taxpayer-owned banking business in 2010 – after Epstein was convicted of sex offences.
Starmer said at PMQs: “The ambassador has repeatedly expressed his deep regret for his association with him. He is right to do so.
“I have confidence in him, and he is playing an important role in the UK-US relationship.”
Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges. The death was ruled a suicide.
