Mandelson says he liked Trump’s ‘graciousness’ and ‘directness’
Laura Kuenssberg asks Peter Mandelson if he liked Donald Trump when he was the UK ambassador to Washington.
Mandelson says he did like Trump, listing off numerous reasons why, but said he did not like all of his “language”.
I like him, yes, I liked his humour, his graciousness…
I liked his directness. You knew exactly what he was thinking and where you stood and what he wanted. And how he was proposing to engage, with you. Did I like in all his language? No, I didn’t, did I? Did he make me gasp?
Sometimes, in some of the things he said, of course. But at the end of the day, President Trump is an extraordinary risk taker.
And for me, in the world today, given all its conflicts and its dangers and what and how I would define leadership of a country, I attach a lot of importance.
Key events
This blog is now closed. Read our full report on Mandelson’s comments here:
Summary
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In his first TV interview since he was sacked as UK ambassador to the US in September, Peter Mandelson declined to apologise to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims for remaining friends with the late paedophile financier after his conviction but told the BBC he was sorry for “a system” that meant Epstein’s victims were ignored. Mandelson said he had paid a “calamitous” price in being sacked over his association with “evil monster” Epstein.
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Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 and served time in jail but Mandelson said he had believed his excuses and continued to support him out of “misplaced loyalty” and “a most terrible mistake on my part”.
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Transport secretary Heidi Alexander said it would have gone “a long way” for Mandelson to have apologised for his friendship with Epstein and accused him of “deep naivety”.
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In his wide-ranging BBC interview, Peter Mandelson also said he liked Donald Trump’s “graciousness” and “directness” and said he believed the US would not take control of Greenland by military force. This followed a report in the Telegraph that said Downing Street was talking with European allies about possibly deploying a military force to Greenland in the hope of reducing the likelihood of Donald Trump trying to seize control of the self-governing Danish territory.
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The Conservative party said it would ban under-16s from accessing social media platforms if they were in government, heaping pressure on Labour to take a similar line.
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The Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who has also proposed for phones to be banned in schools, told the BBC this morning that social media platforms were profiting from children’s “anxiety” and “distraction” and were “designed to be addictive”.
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The Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, appeared to endorse the Conservative Party’s plan to ban under-16s from social media, saying “parents would welcome a cross-party consensus around much bolder action”.
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It came after one of the UK’s biggest teaching unions, NASUWT, called on the government to ban social media for under-16s over concerns about mental health and concentration.
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Asked about the protests in Iran, Kemi Badenoch said she would “not have an issue” with seeing the Iranian regime removed and that it could be right for the US and its allies to be involved in that process. Heidi Alexander, meanwhile, said the UK wants to see a peaceful transition of power in Iran, where protests have been met with a violent police response.
Councils spent an estimated £353m last year on housing children in illegal homes, including caravans, holiday camps and Air BnBs, according to a new report from the children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza. Here is an extract of a story by the PA news agency based on the report:
On 1 September, there were 669 children living in illegal homes – down from 764 on the same day in 2024, the report from children’s commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said.
Of these 669 children, 89 have lived in the same illegal housing for more than one year and nearly 60% have complex additional needs or disabilities, according to the data.
Most children in illegal accommodation are over the age of 15 (51%), while 46% were aged 10 to 15 and 3.1% were under 10 years old, the report said.
Dame Rachel said her findings, released on Sunday, were “indicative of wide failings across an entire system” and called for improved models of children’s social care.
Andy Burnham says he agrees with a lot of what the Tories say about ‘children and social media’
We mentioned in the opening post that the Conservatives are backing a ban on social media for under-16s after Australia introduced restrictions on social media for children last month, and other countries are now considering similar moves to protect young people’s mental health.
Now Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has heaped more pressure on the Labour government to act by saying he agrees with a lot of what the Conservatives are saying about children’s social media use, urging for “bolder action” from ministers.
Burnham, Keir Starmer’s potential rival for the Labour leadership (if it comes to that), said in a post on X:
I find myself agreeing with a lot of what Kemi Badenoch is saying about children and social media. It seems to me parents would welcome a cross-party consensus around much bolder action.
The UK government is closely monitoring the reaction to Australia’s ban and considering its policy options.
Labour does not currently support a social media ban for under-16s, but argues it is taking action to make sure children are only able to access age-appropriate content – something many parents (and children) would disagree is actually the case in real life.
UK wants peaceful transition of power in Iran, transport secretary says
As the US weighs the option of military strikes, Heidi Alexander said she would not be drawn on America’s foreign policy towards Iran, where many people have reportedly been killed or injured by security forces in recent days.
Instead, as the Guardian’s Whitehall editor Rowena Mason mentions in this story, the transport secretary would only say that the UK wants to see a peaceful transition of power in Iran.
Alexander told the BBC that the Iranian government needs to protect civilian lives, the public’s fundamental freedoms, including the right to protest, and for officials to be restrained in their actions/response to the demonstrations, which were triggered by the collapse of the country’s currency but have since broadened into wider anti-government protests.
Speaking to Sky News, she said Iran was a hostile state that posed a security threat in the Middle East and repressed its own people, adding: “The priority, as of today, is to try and stem the violence that is happening in Iran at the moment.”
Alexander was much more constrained in her comments in comparison to Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, who said earlier that she would not have an “issue” with the removal of the current regime in Iran (see post at 09.42 for more details).
UK working with Nato allies to bolster security in the Arctic, transport secretary says
The Telegraph has reported that Downing Street is talking with European allies about possibly deploying a military force to Greenland in the hope of reducing the likelihood of Donald Trump trying to seize control of the mineral-rich self-governing Danish territory.
The plans could involve British soldiers, warships and planes being deployed to protect Greenland from Russia and China, according to the Telegraph.
No 10 has not commented on the specifics of the story. Transport secretary Heidi Alexander was asked about it on the BBC this morning and said the report “possibly reads something more into business as usual discussions amongst Nato allies than there actually are”. It is not entirely clear what she meant by that…
Alexander went on to say:
We do agree with President Trump that the Arctic Circle and the countries that border that, which in geopolitical terms is often referred to as the High North. This is becoming an increasingly contested part of the world, with the ambitions of Putin and China.
And whilst we haven’t seen the appalling consequences in that part of the world that we’ve seen in Ukraine, it is really important that we do everything that we can with all of our Nato allies to ensure that we have an effective deterrent in that part of the globe against Putin.
He is increasingly active there. And we saw just a couple of days ago the support that we provided in an enabling capacity to the US to intercept that vessel, which was part of the shadow fleet, and so what we’re not going to do is take any risks with the security of our country in the European continent. And that’s why we’re working with our Nato allies.
It would have gone ‘a long way’ for Mandelson to have apologised for friendship with Epstein, transport secretary says
The transport secretary Heidi Alexander was up next on the BBC’s politics programme and was asked whether Peter Mandelson should have apologised to victims for continuing his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the now-deceased convicted child sex offender. (Epstein was found dead in his cell on 10 August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex crimes charges in New York. The death was ruled a suicide.)
Alexander said:
I think what we saw there in that interview was at best, deep naivety, from Peter Mandelson. And I think it would have gone a long way for the women who were subjected to the most appalling treatment at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein for Peter to have apologised and taken that opportunity, yes, I do.
Laura Kuenssberg then asked Alexander if it was naive for the government to have given Mandelson the ambassador job (in December 2024) when his friendship with Epstein was known. The transport secretary replied:
I think the breadth and the nature of the relationship that Peter Mandelson had with Jeffrey Epstein only became clear at the point at which those emails were published in September of last year.
And that’s why the prime minister acted swiftly, took immediate action to remove him as the ambassador to the United States. Whilst there would clearly be a discussion about due diligence before you appoint somebody to such a role, it is my understanding that the detailed information was not available.
Mandelson says he was ‘kept separate from sexual side of Epstein’s life’ because he was a gay man
Mandelson told the BBC that he “never saw anything in (Epstein’s) life, when I was with him, when I was in his homes, that would give me any reason to suspect what this evil monster was doing in preying on these young women”.
The former UK ambassador to the US said because he was “a gay man in (Epstein’s) circle, I was kept separate from what he was doing in the sexual side of his life”.
Mandelson declines to apologise for friendship with Epstein: ‘I was not culpable’
Asked whether he wanted to apologise for his association with Epstein, Mandelson said: “I want to apologise to those women for a system that refused to hear their voices and did not give them the protection they were entitled to expect.”
Pressed by Laura Kuenssberg on whether he would apologise for his friendship with Epstein after his conviction, Mandelson said:
If I had known, if I was in any way complicit or culpable, of course I would apologise… but I was not culpable, I was not knowledgeable for what he was doing, and I regret, and will regret to my dying day, the fact that powerless women were not given the protection they were entitled to expect.
Asked if he deserved to be sacked, Mandelson said: “I understand why I was sacked.”
Mandelson says continuing friendship with Jeffrey Epstein was ‘terrible mistake’
Peter Mandelson was then questioned about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and asked about why he continued to be friends with him after his conviction.
Mandelson replied:
It was a most terrible mistake on my part.
I believed the story he told in 2008 in his first indictment in Florida. I accepted his story and I wish I hadn’t.
I gave my support to somebody because I believed what he was telling me and it was misplaced loyalty.
Mandelson was sacked in September over leaked emails in which he expressed his support for Jeffrey Epstein and urged him to “fight for early release” in 2008 while the disgraced financier was facing charges of soliciting sex from minors. The tranche of emails revealed the pair had maintained contact until 2010.
