Peter Mandelson apologises for Epstein association in sudden U-turn; claims ‘his victims did know what he was doing’ | Today News

In a sudden change of heart, Peter Mandelson issued an apology to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein over his connections to the disgraced financier, after previously refusing to do so, during his first TV interview since being fired as Britain's ambassador to the U.S, The Guardian reported.

Earlier, the former Labour grandee said he wasn’t “knowledgeable” of what Epstein “was doing,” he said in a BBC interview Sunday. “If I had known, if I was in any way complicit or culpable, of course I would apologize for it but I was not culpable,” Mandelson told the broadcaster, Bloomberg reported.

The politician lost his job due to his ties with Epstein after Bloomberg News released a batch of emails in September revealing the depth of his connection with the late financier. Mandelson said he understands why UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer removed him from the position and confirmed that he has no plans to return to public office.

In a statement, Mandelson expressed his “unequivocal” apology for maintaining ties with Epstein following the financier’s conviction, according to a report by The Guardian.

In a statement, he said, “At the weekend, I gave an interview to the BBC. In answering questions about my association with Jeffrey Epstein I did not want to be held responsible for his crimes of which I was ignorant, not indifferent, because of the lies he told me and so many others.”

“I want to say loudly and clearly that I was wrong to believe him following his conviction and to continue my association with him afterwards. I apologise unequivocally for doing so to the women and girls who suffered.“I was never culpable or complicit in his crimes. Like everyone else I learned the full truth about him after his death.“But his victims did know what he was doing, their voices were not heard and I am truly sorry I was amongst those who believed him over them.”

Earlier in a BBC interview, Mandelson said he believed he had been “kept separate” from the sexual aspects of Epstein’s life due to his own sexuality.

"Possibly some people will think because I am a gay man... I wasn't attuned to what was going on. I don't really accept that, Mandelson told the BBC.

He mentioned having spent one or two nights on Epstein’s notorious private island, as well as visits to the financier’s properties in New York and New Mexico.

“The only people that were there were the housekeepers; never were there any young women or girls, or people that he was preying on or engaging with in that sort of ghastly predatory way that we subsequently found out he was doing.”

“Epstein was never there,” he noted of his visits to the island, the BBC reported.

Epstein was a convicted sex offender and was accused of sex trafficking young women and girls as young as 14. It came more than a decade after his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, for which he was registered as a sex offender.

He died in a New York prison cell on 10 August 2019 as he awaited, without the chance of bail, his trial on sex trafficking charges.