A cabinet minister has described Peter Mandelson as “brilliant” despite being sacked over his close links to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Peter Keel, an ally of the former British ambassador to Washington, also defended Keir Starmer’s decision to give him the job in the first place.
Mandelson was fired Thursday morning after the release of emails in which he told Epstein “your friends stick with you and love you,” even as he faced child sex charges in 2008.
This morning, Sky News’ Business Secretary Keel admitted that No.
He said: “We knew there were risks involved, but his talent made us believe at the time that the risk was worth it.”
President Trevor Phillips asked him: “The Prime Minister questioned Lord Mandelson about his relationship with Epstein himself. This is one of the country’s leading lawyers. If he couldn’t actually get information from Peter Mandelson before he was appointed, who could? What went wrong here?”
Kiel said: “There was a lot of information publicly, we knew there was a relationship, we knew the relationship continued after he was convicted.
“The decision was made in the national interest to try to utilize the specific talents he had, which were singular and outstanding.”
Strangely, the business secretary claimed that “we only knew what the media knew” about Mandelson’s links to Epstein, despite the fact that Labour peers had to undergo what is known as a “deep vetting” before getting the job.
