Labour peer Peter Mandelson told a Financial Times reporter to “fuck off” when asked about his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The outburst came during an interview as Mandelson prepares to become Britain’s ambassador to the United States.
Mandelson said he regretted ever meeting Epstein, who was introduced to him by Ghislaine Maxwell. He added: “I’m not going to go into this. It’s an FT obsession and frankly you can all fuck off. OK?”
The pair’s connections were highlighted in a 2019 JP Morgan internal report filed to a New York court, which stated Epstein appeared to maintain a “particularly close relationship” with Prince Andrew and Mandelson. Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
Mandelson defended his diplomatic skills, noting that former US President George W. Bush had called him “silvertongue”. He dismissed a Trump adviser’s description of him as “an absolute moron”, saying: “What they will discover is I’m not an uber-liberal, I’m not a wokey-cokey sort of person, and I’m pro-market and pro-business.”
