4 hours ago
8
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Mandelson says he regrets 'very, very deeply' being taken in by 'charismatic, criminal liar'
Peter Mandelson, the British ambassador to the US, has spoken at length about how he regrets “very, very deeply indeed” his past friendship with the billionaire paedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
After new evidence about the extent of that friendship came to light yesterday, Mandelson gave an interview to the Sun’s editor-at-large in the US, Harry Cole, accepting that the disclosures were “very embarrassing to see and to read”.
Mandelson told Cole in an interview for his new show, Harry Cole Saves the West (sic):
I just feel two things now – one, I feel a tremendous sense, a profound sense of sympathy for those people, those women, who suffered as a result of his behaviour and his illegal criminal activities.
Secondly, I regret very, very deeply indeed carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done …
I regret very much that I fell for his lies, I fell for and accepted assurances that he had given me about his indictment, his original criminal case in Florida, like very many people, I took at face value what he said.
With hindsight, with fresh information, many years later, we realised that we had been wrong to believe him.
He is a charismatic, criminal liar we now see, and I regret very much indeed.
I felt it like an albatross around my neck since his death in 2018 or 19, when it was.
I feel, I feel a tremendous sense of regret, not only that I met him in the first place, but I continued the association, and I took, at face value, the lies that he fed me and many others.
Mandelson said that he expected further correspondence between himself and Epstein to surface. But he also insisted that he never saw any evidence of Epstein being involoved in criminal activity, and he suggested that that might have been related to his being gay. He told Cole:
I just would say this … during all the time I was an associate of his, I never saw the wrongdoing. I never saw any evidence of criminal activity. I never sought and nor did he offer any introductions to women in the way that allegedly he did for others.
Perhaps it’s because I’m a gay man, perhaps when I knew him, perhaps when I was associated with him those years ago, as I did with my then partner and now husband, we never, ever saw any evidence or sign of this activity, which has since come to light.
That’s why I feel so profoundly upset by what has been now revealed about what he did to women and why I feel profoundly upset that I was taken in by him and continued my association with him for far longer than I should have.
Cole did not ask Mandelson whether, in his current role as ambassador, there are any other charismatic, criminal liars he is at risk of being conned by.
The full five-minute interview is here, and there is a shorter clip here.
Labour comms director helped write manifesto while still working at TikTok
A senior executive at TikTok helped write the Labour manifesto while still working at the Chinese-owned technology company, he has said. James Lyons, who left his post as Keir Starmer’s director strategic communications last week, wrote on LinkedIn that he was asked last year to help write the party’s election pledges while he was still working for the social media platform. Kiran Stacey has the story here.
Keir Starmer will meet Israeli president Isaac Herzog as MPs express ‘grave concern’ at the visit
Good morning. Keir Starmer is today holding talks with Isaac Herzog, president of Israel, in Downing Street. The visit was highly contentious even before Israel bombed Qatar in a targeted strike aimed at Hamas officials.
More than 60 parliamentarians, including Labour MPs, SNP MPs, Greens and independents, have signed a letter to Starmer expressing “grave concern” at the visit because, even though the presidency in Israel is largely a ceremonial post, Herzog’s past comments and actions have been cited as support for the case that the country is committing genocide in Gaza.
Here is the text of the letter, coordinated by the Labour MP Andy McDonald.
And the Green party has gone further. Zack Polanski, its new leader, has called for Herzog to be arrested. He said:
President Herzog has been complicit while the Israeli government has engaged in an ongoing genocide in Gaza. Everyone involved should be arrested, charged for war crimes and face justice.
Welcoming a potential war criminal to the UK is another demonstration of how this Labour government is implicated in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. It also serves as a brutal insult to those mourning the thousands of innocent lives lost and to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians facing ongoing violence and hunger.
A refusal to detain Herzog can be seen as a contravention of the Geneva Convention which makes clear that States have legal responsibility for preventing the targeting of civilians. When this is breached individuals must be prosecuted and this should be applied to Herzog.
As Eleni Courea reports in her story, Herzog has “previously clashed with Netanyahu over democratic and judicial changes but broadly backed the military campaign in Gaza”. She says:
The Israeli president has received attention for a statement in which he asserted that all Palestinians in Gaza were “unequivocally” responsible for the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023. “The entire [Palestinian] nation out there … is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved,” he said in October 2023.
Starmer will no doubt address this at PMQs.
And there will be more on Labour’s deputy leadership contest, although the main event – the private, online hustings for Labour MPs – will not take place until this evening, when the blog has closed.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: The ONS publishes annual household spending figures.
9.45am: Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, gives evedience to the Commons culture committee.
11am: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is due to give a speech at the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) summit.
11.30am: Liz Kendall takes questions in the Commons for the first time since being moved from work and pensions secretary to science secretary in last week’s reshuffle.
Noon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.
2.15pm: Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s first minister, and Emma Little-Pengelly, the deputy first minister, take questions from the executive office committee at Stormont.
Afternoon: John Healey, the defence secretary, holds a press conference with his counterparts from the E5 (the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Poland) after they have held a meeting.
Afternoon: Starmer holds a meeting with Isaac Herzog, the Israeli president.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm BST at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
