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Keir Starmer was briefed on details of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein before he decided to make him US ambassador, senior civil servants have said.
The prime minister received a Cabinet Office report that contained “a summary of reputational risks” to appointing Mandelson, including his “prior relationship with Jeffrey Epstein” and past resignations as a Labour minister.
Chris Wormald, the cabinet secretary, told MPs that the report had contained “direct extracts from media reporting and notes a general reputational risk” to making the appointment.
Speaking at the foreign affairs select committee, he said the “judgment about whether to make the appointment or not” had ultimately been one for Keir Starmer.
Mandelson’s longstanding friendship with Epstein – which continued after the disgraced financier was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor – was a matter of public record before his appointment was made.
It was public information that Mandelson had stayed at Epstein’s flat in Manhattan in 2009, the year after Epstein was sentenced to prison.
The Mandelson briefing sent to Starmer also mentioned official records showing that Mandelson had facilitated a meeting between Epstein and Tony Blair in 2002. These have since been released by the National Archives after a delay.
Wormald set out the due diligence process involved in Mandelson’s appointment, starting with the Cabinet Office’s propriety and ethics report, followed by a conflict of interest declaration and in-depth national security vetting carried out on behalf of the Foreign Office.
The department has previously admitted that Mandelson’s appointment was announced before that developed vetting process was complete.
Oliver Robbins, the permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, said that Mandelson was no longer on the government payroll and that the process of terminating his civil service employment was complete. He declined to reveal whether Mandelson had received a severance package.
Asked whether the Foreign Office had had a different preferred candidate for US ambassador before the appointment, Robbins said: “At the time we’re describing, it was clear that the prime minister wanted to make this appointment himself and therefore I understand that the FCDO was informed of his decision and acted upon it.
“In this particular case the prime minister took advice and formed a view himself and we then acted on that view.”
Mandelson was sacked last month over a tranche of leaked emails in which he expressed his love and support for Epstein and urged him to “fight for early release” in 2008 while the financier was facing charges for soliciting sex from minors.
Wormald said it was the publication of the “new and previously unknown emails that led to the decision to withdraw the ambassador to Washington”. He said the emails were “gamechanging in terms of what was known”.
But Wormald and Robbins admitted that Starmer had not been informed about the contents of Mandelson’s emails before the session of prime minister’s questions when he expressed his full support for him as ambassador.
Robbins said that after being contacted by Bloomberg about the emails, officials asked Mandelson a series of questions as they sought to confirm their veracity without yet involving ministers. At that stage Starmer was told only that there was a media inquiry that was being looked into. Bloomberg published the full set of emails later on Wednesday, after he had given Mandelson his backing.
Robbins argued that although it “may sound naive” with hindsight, Mandelson was in “an extremely exposed position” and was an employee to whom the department “owed a duty of care”.
The government has set out new guidance for politically appointed ambassadors intended to avoid a repeat of the Mandelson scandal. The updated guidelines state that candidates directly appointed by ministers outside the civil service system should undergo a pre-appointment interview with a senior official and an informal “fireside chat” with the minister in charge.
