Disgraced Labour big beast Peter Mandelson is reported to have tried to help his paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein stop a newspaper investigation into the billionaire’s friendship with former prince Andrew. According to the Daily Mail, newly discovered emails released by the US Department of Justice from the so-called Epstein Files show Mandelson advised Epstein to “fight back” in the wake of stories surrounding Andrew Mountbatten-Wndsor and his accuser Virgina Giuffre.
Ms Giuffre, who died last year, gave an interview to the Mail on Sunday in 2011 alleging she slept with the then Prince Andrew between 2001 and 2002, when she was 17. Her name at the time was Viriginia Roberts and she claimed she was sex trafficked and abused by Epstein.
Andrew has always vehemently denied the allegations.
The Daily Mail reports newly discovered emails from the Epstein Files show before the interview with Ms Giuffre was published convicted the billionaire paedophile contacted Mandelson asking if he could recommend a London-based PR expert.
The newspaper reports Mandelson advised Epstein who he could “possibly” contact and urged that the American financier and his legal team “must start setting down the irrefutable facts, build a narrative and then fight back”.
It’s also reported Mandelson suggested the sex offender needed a “UK libel lawyer”.
The Mail reports a spokesman for Mandelson said: “Lord Mandelson regrets, and will regret until to his dying day, that he believed Epstein’s lies about his criminality.
“Lord Mandelson did not discover the truth about Epstein until after his death in 2019. He is profoundly sorry that powerless and vulnerable women and girls were not given the protection they deserved.”
Scotland Yard has launched an investigation following allegations that Lord Mandelson sent market-sensitive information to the paedophile financier while he was business secretary in Gordon Brown’s government during the financial crisis.
Mr Brown said he regretted giving Lord Mandelson his peerage and bringing him back into the government in 2008, adding that he felt “shocked, sad, angry betrayed, let down” when he saw the Epstein messages released by the US Department of Justice.
A Government spokesman said action was already being taken to clean up Westminster in the wake of the revelations from the Epstein files and “the shameful and disgraceful behaviour revealed this week”, which it said was “wholly incompatible with public service, and it is right that no one is above accountability”.
He added: “We have already strengthened the ministerial code, giving the independent adviser greater powers to launch investigations, introduced a new monthly register of gifts and hospitality, established a new ethics commission, and ensured that ministers who break the rules cannot receive severance payments.
“But Gordon Brown is right that further action is needed in light of what has emerged this week – and we have already begun urgent work on how we can do more.”