Peter Mandelson sacked as ambassador to US for saying Epstein’s first conviction was wrong, minister says – UK politics live | Politics
Mandelson has been sacked as ambassador to US, MPs told
Stephen Doughty, a Foreign Office minister, is responding to the UQ about Peter Mandelson.
He starts by making the point that it is the anniversary of the “despicable” 9/11 terrorism attacks.
And he condemns the “appalling” killing of Charlie Kirk in the US.
Addressing the UQ, he says the PM has asked the foreign secretary to withdraw Mandelson as ambassador to the US.
Key events
Badenoch claims Starmer ‘failed another key test of leadership’ by backing Mandelson in Commons yesterday
Kemi Badenoch has claimed that Keir Starmer “failed yet another key test of leadership” when he backed Peter Mandelson in the Commons yesterday. She was speaking in a video she has just posted on social media.
Mandelson might have gone but, just as with Angela Rayner, Starmer dithered when he needed to be decisive.
Time and again he puts party above country. He has no backbone and no convictions.
There are now serious questions over what Starmer knew and when. We deserve to know. pic.twitter.com/zhV4MlFkW1
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) September 11, 2025
(The video must have been recorded before the Mandelson sacking was announced, and much of it sounds as if it was scripted to go out assuming he was still in post.)
Tories welcome Mandelson’s resignation, but claim it has left ‘huge turmoil’ ahead of state visit
Responding to Stephen Doughty’s statement, the Conservative spokersperson Neil O’Brien said that there were still “huge questions” for the government over this. He asked:
Did the US state department give any warning to our Government ahead of this appointment? Did the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Sue Gray give any warning? Have any employees of Global Counsel visited our Washington embassy since his appointment?
Next week is going to be the state visit. This is huge turmoil ahead of it and I cannot believe that the government put our monarch in this terrible position. I am glad that Peter Mandelson has now gone.
Mandelson sacked in particular for saying, in emails unknown to No 10, Epstein’s first conviction was wrong, minister says
Here is the full quote from Stephen Doughty, the Foreign Office minister.
In light of the additional information in emails written by Peter Mandelson, the prime minister has asked the foreign secretary to withdraw him as ambassador to the United States.
The emails show that the depth and extent of Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment.
In particular, Lord Mandelson’s suggestion that Jeffrey Epstein’s first conviction was wrongful and should be challenged is new information.
And in light of that I’m mindful, as we all are, of the victims of Epstein’s appalling crimes, and he has been withdrawn as ambassador with immediate effect.
Mandelson has been sacked as ambassador to US, MPs told
Stephen Doughty, a Foreign Office minister, is responding to the UQ about Peter Mandelson.
He starts by making the point that it is the anniversary of the “despicable” 9/11 terrorism attacks.
And he condemns the “appalling” killing of Charlie Kirk in the US.
Addressing the UQ, he says the PM has asked the foreign secretary to withdraw Mandelson as ambassador to the US.
SNP calls for Mandelson to be sacked ‘without further delay’
The SNP is also calling for Peter Mandelson to be sacked. In a statement, Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, said:
Keir Starmer must sack Peter Mandelson without further delay – and come clean about what he knew when, and whether he sanctioned blocking the publication of damaging material.
UK government documents shouldn’t be hidden from the public just because they are damaging to the Labour party – and by backing Peter Mandelson to the hilt, the prime minister’s own reputation is now on the line.
Flynn is referring to this Times story.
Paula Barker withdraws from Labour’s deputy leadership contest
Paula Barker has also dropped out from the Labour deputy leadership contest, PA Media is reporting.
That means there are just three candidates left in – Bridget Phillipson, Lucy Powell and Bell Ribeiro-Addy. (See 9.26am.)
Labour MP Sharon Hodgson condemns attack on her constituency office
Police are investigating a fire at the constituency office of the Labour MP Sharon Hodgson, who represents Washington and Gateshead South, the Sunderland Echo reports.
According to the Sunderland Echo, as well as the fire damage, there is graffiti on the building saying: “328 days blood on your hands”.
A spokesperson for Hodgson said:
An incident occurred overnight at Sharon’s office.
We will not be commenting or speculating while there is an ongoing police investigation, what we are clear on is there is no place for this kind of violence in our society.
Sharon will not be deterred and will continue to support her constituents in Washington and Gateshead South as she does day in, day out.
Constituents should get in touch with their issues by emailing in the usual way.
Hospital waiting list figures rise for second month in row, NHS England figures reveal
Hospital waiting list figures in England have risen for the second month in a row, the latest figures reveal.
PA Media says an estimated 7.40 million treatments were waiting to be carried out at the end of July, relating to 6.25 million patients, up from 7.37 million treatments and 6.23 million patients at the end of June.
The list hit a record high in September 2023, with 7.77 million treatments and 6.50 million patients.
In its own news release on the figures, NHS England has instead focused on the figures showing that “NHS staff delivered a record number of cancer checks and treatments in July, despite five days of industrial action”.
Wes Streeting, the health secretary, said:
One year ago, I made a promise that we would deliver 2 million extra appointments in our first year – not only did we do this in just 5 months, but we have obliterated that target, carrying out over 5 million.
Mandelson reportedly being asked by Foreign Office to clarify details of his relationship with Epstein
In his Sky News interview Mike Tapp, the Home Office minister, said that, as far as he was aware, all the details of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein were known to the government.
But, according to Sam Coates from Sky News, that is not the case. He says that Ollie Robbins, permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, has written to Mandelson asking him various questions about his dealings with the disgraced billionaire paedophile. Coates says Robbins is asking questions like: “When did you last meet Jeffrey Epstein before he took his own life? When did you last accept hospitality? What were your last business dealings with?”
Home Office minister Mike Tapp says he found Mandelson’s emails to Epstein ‘disturbing and sickening’
Mike Tapp, who only joined the government at the weekend as migration minister, was doing the interview round on behalf of No 10 this morning. He was there to promote an announcement from the Home Office about employers abusing the work visa system, but inevitably he spent most of his time talking about Peter Mandelson.
Tapp was effective at expressing his horror at the messages that have been published from Mandelson to Jeffrey Epstein. He told LBC that the emails were “really disturbing and sickening” and on BBC Breakdfast he said they made him “shudder”.
But junior ministers doing the interview round always struggle when they are asked to comment on decisions being made in the PM’s office and Tapp more or less admitted that he did not know how things were going to unfold.
In his Times Radio interview, asked if Mandelson would still be ambassador to the US when Donald Trump makes his state visit to the UK next week, Tapp replied: “As far as I know.”
And asked if Keir Starmer would continue to retain confidence in Mandelson for the rest of the day, Tapp said: “I can’t say. I’m not the prime minister.”
Foreign Office minister to answer Commons urgent question on Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to US
There will be an urgent question in the Commons at 10.30am on Peter Mandelson. The Speaker has granted a question tabled by the Conservative Neil O’Brien asking a Foreign Office minister to make a statement “on the process for the appointment of the United Kingdom’s ambassador to the United States”.
Emily Thornberry drops out of Labour’s deputy leadership contest after coming last in latest nomination count
Emily Thornberry has announced that she is withdrawing from the contest to be Labour’s next deputy leader. In a post on social media, she said:
I’m deeply grateful to all the Labour members who have shared their support.
But I have decided to withdraw.
It has been a privilege to take part in this race with such brilliant women.
I will always be committed to this party and do everything I can to make it successful.
Six MPs declared on Tuesday there were standing in the contest, but Alison McGovern dropped out yesterday and last night, when Labour published the latest nomination figures, it became obviously that only two candidates are likely to make the ballot.
To qualify, MPs need nominations from at least 80 MPs. Bridget Phillipson has passed that threshold, and Lucy Powell seems certain to reach it by 5pm this afternoon, when nominations close.
Here are the nomination figures released last night. Thornberry had the least support.
Bridget Phillipson: 116
Lucy Powell: 77
Bell Ribeiro-Addy: 15
Paula Barker: 14
Emily Thornberry: 13
Now that Thornberry had dropped out, the 13 MPs who nominated her are free to nominate someone else.
Starmer under fresh pressure to sack Mandelson as Andy McDonald claims PLP ‘100%’ against letting him stay
Good morning. Keir Starmer knew that Peter Mandelson had had a long and close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein when he appointed him ambassador to Washingon. He also knew that Mandelson has been a scandal magnet for most of his career. But he was not appointing him archbishop of Canterbury. He calculated that Mandelson would be the right person to forge a good relationship with the immoral plutocrat narcissist now running America (also an old friend of Epstein’s), and by all accounts Mandelson has done this very successfully.
But, as Rowena Mason reports in her overnight story, Starmer is now under pressure to ditch the ambassador because new revelations about his relationship with Epstein have made it increasingly hard to defend – not least because Mandelson continued to support him in private even after he was facing charges for child sex offences.
Yesterday the leftwingers Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Kim Johnson were about the only Labour MPs calling for Mandelson to be sacked. But this morning, in an interview with the Today programme, Andy McDonald, a shadow cabinet minister under Jeremy Corbyn and under Starmer until 2021, also spoke out, saying Mandelson should go immediately.
McDonald told the programme:
[Mandelson] should go immediately. His position is completely and utterly untenable and him staying on in post is causing the government and the Labour party further damage. I’m afraid if he doesn’t do the right thing and resign today then the prime minister should sack him …
Angela Rayner did the right thing. She was under pressure for an inadvertent failure to pay tax. This is of a completely different scale. This speaks about morality and judgement, and Peter Mandelson’s position just is totally untenable, and he needs to act and take responsibility for his failures and withdraw from the political scene immediately.
More significantly, McDonald also claimed this was the private view of most or all Labour MPs. Asked how many other Labour MPs agreed with what he was saying about Mandelson, McDonald replied:
It’s 100%. People have got their heads in their hands over this and I haven’t spoken to anybody who is offering any glimmer of support for Peter Mandelson. It is widespread revulsion that we, by association, being in the same party, are being brought under the microscope for something that he has done.
He’s got to take responsibility for his actions and bring this to a close.
There isn’t anybody in the Labour party who is supporting Peter Mandelson today and the prime minister’s got to hear that and understand that he’ll weaken his position if he continues to support him. He cannot defend the indefensible.
When it was put to him that it was worth keeping Mandelson in post because he was helping the UK to get favourable decisions out of the White House, McDonald replied:
There’s got to be a moral compass. There are women who have been so fundamentally damaged by the behaviour of Epstein and his associates, and, in honour of them, we’ve got to put down a marker and say this is wholly and utterly unacceptable.
And the consequences that flow from somebody having to fall on their sword will be the consequences, and we will deal with it.
It will not derail the relationship between the United States and the UK. That will sustain way beyond this current prime minister and this current president.
In part this is just Labour factionalism; it’s the latest skirmish in a battle between Mandelson and the left that has been going on since the 1980s. Mandelson once famously said he wanted to consign the Corbynite left to a “sealed tomb”, and the MPs who have been speaking out against him, like McDonald, are leftwingers who are returning the favour. But it is not just that. Opposition parties are demanding Mandelson’s resignation too, and the rightwing papers are gunning for him as well.
There will be quite a lot more of this as the day goes on.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: NHS England publishes its latest monthly performance figures.
9.45am: Wes Streeting, the health secretary, speaks at a Policy Live event in London.
10.3am: Alan Campbell, the new leader of the Commons, takes business questions in the chamber.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
Noon: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, takes questions at Holyrood.
2.30pm: John Healey, the defence secretary, speaks at the DSEI conference in London.
Afternoon: David Lammy, the new deputy PM and justice secretary, visits a prison in south London.
5pm: Nominations close for the Labour party deputy leadership. As Jessica Elgot reports, Bridget Phillipson is definitely a candidate, and it is likely only one other MP will be nominated – Lucy Powell.
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