Mandelson refuses to apologise to victims over his friendship with Epstein
Lord Mandelson has refused to apologize to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims over his friendship with the convicted pedophile and financier.
In “finger-curling” emails, the former US ambassador and cabinet minister described Epstein as his “best friend” but claimed he was “on the sidelines” of the financier’s life.
Speaking on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg program in his first interview since being sacked as Britain’s ambassador to the US, the Labor leader would only apologize for the “system” that had failed Epstein’s victims.
He said: “I want to apologize to these women for the system that refuses to hear their voices and does not provide them with the protection they expect.”
Asked after his conviction whether he would apologize for his friendship with Epstein, Lord Mandelson said: “If I had known, if I had been complicit or guilty in any way, I would of course have apologized… but I was not guilty, I had no knowledge of what he did, and I regret, and will regret until the day I die, that powerless women were not given the protection they were entitled to expect.”
She called her relationship with Epstein a “terrible mistake” and said, “I will regret it until the day I die.”
He continued: “I believed his story that he and his lawyer were wrongfully criminalized for their relationships with these young women. Now I wish I hadn’t believed that story.”
In an awkward moment, he challenged Ms. Kuenssberg to claims that she knew about the allegations about Epstein.
“Do you really think that if I had known what he was doing with these vulnerable young women and what he was doing to them, I would have sat back and moved on and said, ‘Okay, this is her, this is her life’? I would have done that? Do you think I would have written emails like this if I had any knowledge or suspicion of what he was doing?”
He said: “I can say this with certainty, I can tell you categorically, that I have never seen anything in his life, in his presence, in his possession, that would give me any reason to suspect what an evil monster this man is.”
His Labor colleague also strongly hinted that he disagreed with his sacking as US ambassador over emails and messages that revealed new information about his relationship with Epstein.
Asked whether he deserved to be dismissed, Lord Mandelson said: “I understand why I was dismissed.”
He added: “The emails that were published came as a huge surprise and shock not only to them but also to me. They no longer exist on my server, which I have not used for a long time. I could not share the emails with them if I did not remember them.”
The interview was met with outrage by the government, with transport minister Heidi Alexander saying she thought Mandelson should apologize to Epstein’s victims.
He continued: “I think it was only at the point when these emails were published in September last year that the extent and nature of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein became clear, and so the Prime Minister took swift action and took immediate action to remove him from his post as ambassador to the United States.”
This breaking story will continue….
