Peter Mandelson, the former UK ambassador to the US, has faced renewed scrutiny over his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. A photograph emerged this week showing Mandelson lounging in a white bathrobe with Epstein, whom he described as a 'best pal'. The image has raised questions about Mandelson's association with the disgraced financier, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Mandelson's relationship with Epstein is part of a broader pattern of cultivating wealthy and controversial figures. The Labour peer has a history of befriending billionaires, including Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and Indian-born businessman Srichand Hinduja. In 2005, Mandelson flew on a private jet with Nathaniel Rothschild to meet Deripaska in Siberia, where they attended an ice hockey match and a traditional banya sauna session.
Mandelson's closeness to the super-rich has repeatedly landed him in trouble. He resigned from Tony Blair's government twice: first in 1998 over an undeclared £373,000 loan from fellow MP Geoffrey Robinson, and again in 2001 after lobbying the Home Office on behalf of Hinduja, who was a donor to the Millennium Dome project. Mandelson later served as EU trade commissioner and was appointed to the House of Lords in 2008.
Despite these scandals, Mandelson remains a key figure in Keir Starmer's Labour party. He gave Morgan McSweeney, now Starmer's chief of staff, one of his first jobs in the party. However, his latest resignation as ambassador to the US—his third such exit—underscores the enduring controversy surrounding his relationships with the ultra-wealthy.
