Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is naming Lord Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to the United States. The Labour grandee had to resign in disgrace from Tony Blair‘s government on two separate occasions. Still, successive party leaders have repeatedly restored him to positions of power despite his scandals and unsavory connections to Jeffrey Epstein.
Following his second resignation from the Blair government, he was appointed to the European Commission, the unelected executive of the European Union (EU). Scandals in the EU also plagued Mandelson, but Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown, granted him a seat for life in the House of Lords and returned him to a government for a third time once his term was completed.
Mandelson, who was “outed” in a BBC interview in 1998, is infamous for remaining “particularly close” to pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein even after he was convicted of soliciting minors. It is reported that he called Epstein in prison while serving in Brown’s government to arrange a meeting with JP Morgan chairman Jamie Dimon.
The so-called “Prince of Darkness” may struggle to build a rapport with President-elect Trump, having previously described the America First leader as “disdainful, unscrupulous, prepared to say anything to harvest the populist vote,” which makes other world leaders “frightened.”
