"Though there is no good time to lose our ambassador to Washington over his friendship with a convicted paedophile, this one is biblically bad: days after losing Angela Rayner, in the middle of a deputy leadership contest that is being viewed as a power struggle between Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham, ahead of a state visit by a US president with his own embarrassing connections to Epstein."
"Mandelson might have survived Monday's publication of a gushing birthday tribute to his best pal, written before Epstein's conviction for soliciting prostitution from minors. But the later emails that surfaced on Wednesday, fondly urging his now disgraced friend to fight for early release and promising that your friends stay with you and love you, were beyond toxic. No Labour government battling poisonous conspiracy theories about the left turning a blind eye to grooming gangs could tolerate this,"
Peter Mandelson returned to influence only to become engulfed in a career-ending scandal over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. A gushing birthday tribute written before Epstein's conviction and later emails urging early release and offering personal support proved politically toxic. The fall occurred rapidly, seven months after his resurrection. The timing compounded party problems: it followed Angela Rayner's loss, unfolded during a deputy leadership contest seen as Starmer versus Burnham, and came before a US presidential state visit with its own Epstein links. The episode provoked anger that Mandelson was allowed so close to power again.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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