LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer backed the UK ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson Wednesday after details emerged of the diplomat’s friendship with disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mandelson called the late Epstein his “best pal” and an “intelligent, sharp-witted man” in a 2003 letter, released to the public just a week before US President Donald Trump was due to pay a state visit to Britain.
Challenged in parliament about his judgment in appointing the 71-year-old grandee of the center-left Labour party to the key diplomatic post, Starmer insisted that “due process was followed.”
He described Epstein as a “despicable criminal” who “destroyed the lives of so many women and girls.”
But he added: “The ambassador has repeatedly expressed his deep regret for his association with him. He is right to do so. I have confidence in him.”
