Streeting admits he got it wrong on Peter Mandelson’s links to Jeffrey Epstein
Wes Streeting has admitted that reports that Peter Mandelson was linked to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein were not taken seriously when they emerged in 2023.
Facing questions about his political involvement and friendship with his disgraced peer, the health secretary said he “absolutely” questioned his own judgment on the matter and said politicians and the media had failed to ask enough questions about their relationship before Lord Mandelson took over as US ambassador.
BBC tests what it knows in 2023 women’s watch, Following the launch of the government’s new health strategy, Mr Streeting said he thought reports at the time were unreliable.
He said: “I’ll be honest, you know, when people pop up on social media and make these kinds of accusations, they tend to be the kind of people who are trolling your timeline. I didn’t think it could be very credible… It didn’t really get a lot of traction. Like, I don’t remember it being a big story at the time.”
“You just think, ‘I haven’t seen this from a really reliable source,'” [he] was not questioned by. “I think that’s exaggerated,” he said, noting that Mandelson still has a podcast and still appears regularly on “really big news shows.”
He added: “This should not overlook the fundamental question: ‘Why did Peter Mandelson think it was appropriate to continue this relationship with Epstein following his conviction?’ Why wasn’t Peter Mandelson asked enough questions about this? And this is a political failure.
“I also think it’s a media failure. I think it stems from the same root cause, which is that those women, those girls, are not taken seriously enough, their experiences are not taken seriously enough and their experiences are not prioritized enough. I’m afraid and I feel that that’s exactly a form of sexism, misogyny, and I think we all have to take responsibility for that.”
Asked if he had asked for his verdict on the matter, he said: “Oh, of course… absolutely and there’s no doubt about it.”
Lord Mandelson was sacked as the UK’s ambassador to the US last year and resigned from the Labor Party and the House of Lords in March when new emails emerged in the latest installment of the so-called Epstein files in the US.
Lord Mandelson was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office in late February, following allegations that he leaked sensitive government information to Jeffrey Epstein while he was business secretary under then-prime minister Gordon Brown.
Earlier in February, Mr Streeting published a series of texts between himself and Lord Mandelson explaining his criticism of Sir Keir Starmer’s government, after Sky News suggested he was “close friends” with Lord Mandelson.
Although the health minister acknowledged Lord Mandelson had helped him in the past, he dismissed the allegation as “smear” from his critics within the party and deleted social media posts featuring photos of the pair.
Mr Streeting told Women’s Hour He said allegations that Lord Mandelson leaked sensitive government documents were “serious and significant” and Gordon Brown “had every right to be angry about it”.
The review into the government’s appointment of Lord Mandelson as ambassador is currently ongoing and the first part of the documents have revealed that Sir Keir Starmer was warned in detail about the dangers of appointing him.
Documents detailing his employment show that the prime minister was briefed that he had “close ties” to Epstein, even after the pedophilia financier was first convicted of procuring an underage girl in 2008, and that hiring him would create a “general reputational risk” for his government.
The files make clear that Sir Keir ignored warnings after it emerged that his then chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and former communications director Matthew Doyle, described in documents as Lord Mandelson’s “personal friend”, had backed Labour.
