Epstein kept me ‘separate’ from his sexual side because I’m gay, says Lord Peter Mandelson

Lord Mandelson said he never saw any girls at Jeffrey Epstein’s properties and refused to apologize to the late pedophile’s victims for maintaining his friendship with the American because he was not “aware of what he was doing”.

In his first interview since he was sacked as Britain’s ambassador to the United States over his links to Epstein, he told the BBC he believed he had been “kept out” of the sexual side of the late financier’s life because he was gay.

He was fired after emails were published showing messages of support he had sent to Epstein after the American was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor.

The former ambassador said the only people he saw at Epstein’s properties were “middle-aged housekeepers.”

He said he would have apologized if he had been “complicit or guilty in any way” but stressed that was never the case.

Epstein, a well-connected financier, died in a New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He was previously convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution from a minor, for which he was registered as a sex offender.

When asked on BBC’s One’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg if he wanted to apologize to Epstein’s victims for continuing their friendship after that first conviction, he replied: “I want to apologize to these women for a system that refused to hear their voices and failed to give them the protection they were entitled to expect.”

“This system gave him protection and they didn’t.

“If I had known, if I was complicit or guilty, of course I would apologize. But I was not guilty, I was not aware of what he was doing.”

He continued: “I regret and will regret until the day I die that powerless women, women who were denied the opportunity to express themselves, were not given the protection they had a right to expect.”

Lord Mandelson said he believed he “kept separate” from Epstein’s sex life because of his own sexuality.

“Maybe some people will think that because I’m a gay man…I wasn’t aware of what was going on. I don’t really accept that.

“I think the problem is that because I was a gay man in his circle, I was separated from what he was doing in the sexual area of ​​his life.”

He recalled an occasion when he spent a night or two on Epstein’s infamous private island, as well as visits to Epstein’s properties in New York and New Mexico.

“The only people there were the cleaners, there were never any young women or girls, or people that he preyed on or engaged in this kind of horribly predatory behavior that we later found out he was doing.”

“Epstein was never there,” he noted of his visits to the island.

The government sacked Lord Mandelson as ambassador to the United States after emails showed he had been in contact with Epstein after his first conviction, offering support.

In messages published by Bloomberg and the Sun, Lord Mandelson allegedly told Epstein to “fight for early release” and, the day before his prison sentence began: “Thinking of you.”

Ten sources said he had been “economic with the truth” before his appointment and that they were unaware of the “depth” of their relationship.

On Sunday, Lord Mandelson said the government “knew everything” when it gave him the job, “but not the emails because they surprised me”.

“I didn’t remember sending them… they no longer existed on my server,” he said.

He said he understood why he was fired.

“The Prime Minister found himself in the middle of what must have seemed to him to be some sort of thermonuclear explosion. I’ve been there, I know what’s happening.

“I wish I had the opportunity to remind him of the circumstances of my relationship, my friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and how I came to write these emails in the first place.

“I didn’t, so I understand why he made that decision, but one thing I’m very clear on is that I’m not going to seek to reopen or re-litigate this issue. I’m moving forward.”

Labor Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, who was interviewed on the same programme, said Lord Mandelson had shown “deep naivety at best” in his remarks.

“It would have meant a lot to the women who were subjected to the most appalling treatment at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein if Peter had apologized and taken advantage of this opportunity,” she said.

There would “clearly be a discussion about due diligence before appointing someone to such a role”, she said, but she understood that “detailed information” about their relationship was not available at the time she was given the role.

She said of her continued relationship with Epstein: “If someone I was associated with was in that situation, I wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole.”

Downing Street said the emails showed the “depth and breadth” of the relationship was “significantly different” from what they knew when Lord Mandelson was appointed, particularly his “suggestion that Jeffrey Epstein’s first conviction was unjustified and should be challenged was new information”.

“In light of this, and in consideration of the victims of Epstein’s crimes, he has been removed from his position as ambassador effective immediately,” the statement said.

A key architect of New Labour, Lord Mandelson has been involved in British politics for four decades.

He held several ministerial posts since the election of Tony Blair – and had to resign from the post twice – until Labor lost power in 2010.

Lord Mandelson, whose tenure as ambassador lasted only a few months, was also asked in the interview about his views on US President Donald Trump’s continued comments that his country should “own” Greenland.

While he said he admired Trump’s “candor” in his political dealings, he said he did not believe the US president would “show up in Greenland and take it by force.”

He added: “He won’t do that. I don’t know, but I offer my best judgment as someone who has observed him quite closely. He’s not a fool.”

He added that the president was surrounded by an inner circle of advisers “who reminded him that if he were to step in and take Greenland, it would be completely counterproductive – and would represent a real danger to America’s national interest.”

“We’re all going to have to wake up to the fact that the Arctic needs to be protected from China and Russia. And if you ask me who’s going to lead that security effort, we all know, don’t we, it’s going to be the United States.”

He said he recognized that people were sometimes “confused by his language and his approach to things” but that Trump felt the world was “full of conflict, of hard power, of growing rivalry – and particularly between the United States and China, and that sometimes you have to take precautions, and that requires deterrence.”

“If you want peace, you get it by force, but sometimes you will have to use force too.

“We need to understand that and not just react all the time to the language he uses.”

Additional reporting by Maia Davies