How Mandelson appointment nearly cost Starmer his job as UK prime minister

LONDON -- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has faced the biggest crisis of his leadership because of his decision to appoint a close ally of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to the plum job of U.K.ambassador to the United States.Many warned him not to appoint Peter Mandelson, a 72-year-old grandee of the Labour Party, to the job.

Starmer, who never met Epstein, accepts that Mandelson's appointment was a mistake, and has apologized to Epstein's victims as well as to Labour and the country as a whole.Starmer remains in office, but questions remain as to how long he can do so.How one appointment nearly brought the demise of the prime minister:Under Starmer, Labour returns to power after 14 years in opposition with a landslide victory on a promise to dial down the politics, following the turmoil of the preceding Conservative years.Starmer appoints Mandelson the U.K.

ambassador to the U.S., despite knowing of his previous relationship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, and of his two previous resignations from Tony Blair's government in 1998 and 2001.Mandelson, it was hoped, would be able to use his undoubted charm and networking skills to help the U.K.

be spared from tariffs that the incoming Trump administration was planning.Mandelson plays a central role in Starmer's visit to the White House, during which U.S.President Donald Trump is invited to the U.K.

for an unprecedented second state visit.On the eve of Trump's visit, Starmer fires Mandelson after email exchanges between him and Epstein are published, which indicate that he maintained a friendship with the disgraced financier after his 2008 conviction for sex offenses involving a minor.Starmer's judgment in appointing Mandelson is openly questioned, and Mandelson warns there may be more embarrassing disclosures to come.The U.S.

Justice Department publishes millions of files related to Epstein.Mandelson quits his membership in the Labour Party to avoid causing "further embarrassment”...