Mandelson appointment 'ignored warnings' - Brian Wilson

Former Scottish Labour MP Brian Wilson has said "warning signs" were not heeded in the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US.

Wilson, who served as a trade minister under Mandelson in 1998, told BBC Scotland's The Sunday Show there had been a "disregarding of subjective evidence" and he "certainly wouldn't have made him ambassador to Washington".

His comments come after email exchanges released in the latest Epstein files suggested Mandelson passed on market-sensitive government information to the convicted paedophile.

Wilson said anyone from his "generation of government" would have warned against making Mandelson ambassador because of the "baggage he had accumulated".

Mandelson's association with Jeffrey Epstein was known at the time of his appointment to Washington in December 2024, as was the fact he remained in contact with the financier after his 2008 conviction for procuring for prostitution a girl below age 18.

The former peer was sacked from the role after Downing Street said new information about the depth of this relationship had emerged - including emails showing he sent supportive messages to Epstein as he faced the 2008 sex offence charges.

Wilson said he first met Mandelson when the future Labour peer became the party's director of communications in the 1980s, describing him as being "absolutely first class" and a "very effective operator".

The two worked together in government in 1998, when Mandelson was appointed as secretary of state for trade and industry, with Wilson working under him as minister of state.

Wilson paid tribute to his former boss's skills as a leader but said Mandelson had gone on to "evolve over time".

"The Peter Mandelson who was so good at these jobs was not the same Peter Mandelson who was pressing buttons to Epstein," he said.

"At some point in that evolution I just think that this attraction to wealth and to this set of people just became overwhelming."

Asked if he had seen the change in Mandelson, Wilson said: "Well yes, you did see it because you can't end up on Russian oligarchs' yachts without some degree of compromise, and so I think it was a very visible transition.

"When things go wrong the first time, that's a huge warning sign, but the warning signs were never taken. "

Mandelson resigned in 1998 after failing to declare a £373,000 home loan from fellow Labour minister Geoffrey Robinson, prompting questions over transparency.

In 2001, he resigned as Northern Ireland secretary amid controversy over his involvement in an application for a British passport by Indian businessman Srichand Hinduja.

Mandelson was later cleared of any impropriety over the affair.

He later returned to government for a third time, when he was made a peer and appointed business secretary by then Prime Minister Gordon Brown during the global financial crisis in 2008.

Mandelson's appointment as ambassador was announced in 2024.

Wilson said there had been a "not insignificant" case for the appointment and he would have done a "good job for Britain".

However, he would have decided against the move.

"If you'd asked anyone from my generation of government if this was a good idea, they would have said 'no, don't do it', because they don't need to have heard of Epstein but they would just know that something would go wrong," he said.

"And that was because that was the baggage he had accumulated in that period. Wiser counsel should have prevailed when the Washington thing came up."

Wilson also questioned whether the prime minister was getting the best advice from his team.

"Wherever that advice came from, it was a disregarding of subjective evidence that this was not a good idea.

"If you throw into the mix that people did know that he had maintained a relationship with Epstein after Epstein himself was a well-known criminal, then the case for not appointing him was even stronger.

"And that's where I find it difficult to understand how that could have been ignored," he said.

Also speaking to the Sunday Show, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the situation could cause Keir Starmer "real problems".

"Anyone that knew Mandelson and knew anything about him and was thinking of appointing him to any position would need to ask an awful lot of very tough questions," he said.

Corbyn, who is now co-leader of Your Party, was speaking from their Scottish party conference in Dundee.

He said Mandelson's relationship with Epstein "was never a secret" and his appointment as ambassador by the prime minister had "cost Keir Starmer dear".

"Why the prime minister chose to believe Mandelson over the very obvious and very well publicised information about Mandelson's relationship, never mind what the security services may have told him, I find it utterly astonishing," he added.

Email exchanges in the latest US government release on Epstein in January included some which took place while Mandelson was business secretary.

Among them is one that indicates Mandelson gave Epstein advance notice of a €500bn bailout by the EU to save the Euro in 2010.

Another included a 2009 memo in which Brown's policy adviser Nick Butler wrote about the UK's struggling economy and recommended selling off government-held assets to raise public funds.

The Metropolitan Police is currently investigating Mandelson over allegations of misconduct in public office.

He has not responded to requests for comment but the BBC understands his position is that he has not acted in any way criminally and that he was not motivated by financial gain.