What to say about the dodgy, disingenuous creep that is “Petie” Mandelson? First, it’s always been obvious to anyone with half a brain that this seedy, self-interested chancer, who doesn’t have a socialist bone in his body, was never in politics for the greater good – just his own. He never gave a stuff about the Labour Party or the people it represented. For him politics was just a stepping stone to personal wealth and power, and he used that power to his own ends which is why he was twice kicked out of Tony Blair’s government.
But this sleazeball knew that being at the heart of government would get him alongside rich, powerful people who could help him get rich. And now he is – obscenely so! And that came after years crawling around, sucking up to and hoovering up the hospitality of Russian oligarchs, billionaire businessmen like the Hinduja brothers – who were the reason for his second sacking after he was accused of brokering a passport to one of them in exchange for a £1million donation to the Millennium Dome.
I could reel off his other government jobs where he achieved the sum total of beggar all. But it was his master/servant relationship with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein that’s done for him, a relationship where it seems Petie – Epstein’s pet name for him – was so obsessed, so infatuated that, in his emails to him, he sounded like a lovesick schoolboy.
These skin-crawling missives were all about how much he missed him, how he loved him, how he was his best friend, how he was lonely without him. But the killer messages were those in which he told Epstein to fight the sex charges against him, how he needed strategy, and he could turn it all into an opportunity (turn the abuse of young girls into an opportunity? Seriously?)
But then everyone’s always known Mandelson’s a snake, a man who wears his vileness like a mask yet, somehow, always managed to convince the chumps in government that he’s some wise (if evil) old owl they must listen to – even when everything he’s ever touched has turned to dog dirt.
His title the Prince of Darkness made him sound like some dangerous Machiavellian player – when in reality he was just a greedy, backstabbing conman whose cons always got found out. Hopefully he’s now finished but the man we now have to look at is Keir Starmer who facilitated Mandelson’s return by giving him one of the most prestigious jobs in government.
So why did Starmer ignore warnings about Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein? Why did he stand up in Parliament this week, knowing there was more dirt to come yet still giving him his full-throated support? Why didn’t he sack him at the start of the week instead of letting his hopeless government become engulfed in its second scandal in a fortnight?
Starmer cannot keep pretending he didn’t know about these damning emails. Giving Mandelson the Ambassador’s job in Washington, Petie must have gone through rigorous vetting processes. And so, everything between him and Epstein would have been known to Starmer. Is the former Director of Public Prosecutions seriously saying he didn’t know? And if he didn’t, why didn’t he? It’s his job to know.
Didn’t he know Epstein brokered a deal with Lord Mandelson when he was Business Secretary over the sale of a UK taxpayer-owned banking business AFTER he’d been convicted of child sex offences? And why did he try to hang onto him this week when everyone around was screaming “Get rid”.
It all shows a monumental lack of judgement. Mandelson was a man who had pledged to help a paedophile who, wilfully and in full public view, committed crimes against vulnerable young women. Yet still Starmer gave him a plum job in Washington with a $32million mansion.
What’s the difference between Starmer and Mandelson – not very much!