Leftist spin doctor, consigliere to Iraq war architect Tony Blair, and known in his native Britain as the “Prince of Darkness” insists he does actually know how to be diplomatic while telling a journalist to “fuck off” for asking about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Peter Mandelson, the 1980s-90s vintage Labour Party director of communications — being the original ‘spin doctor’ — is back as the UK’s ambassador to Donald Trump’s Washington DC. As part of his preparation for the role, Mandelson has already had to walk back his previous comments calling Donald Trump a racist as “ill-judged and wrong”, and told the Financial Times despite his reputation he is actually capable of being diplomatic.
That claim seems to have failed at the first hurdle, however, as the interview turning to his past relationships with some prominent figures which revealed the former European Trade Commissioner has an undeniable tetchy side.
Following the FT noting that Mandelson’s political career has been “punctuated by scandals, usually involving proximity to great wealth” it related his response to the paper asking about his former association with Jeffrey Epstein. He is reported to have snapped back: “I regret ever meeting him or being introduced to him by his partner Ghislaine Maxwell.
“I regret even more the hurt he caused to many young women…. I’m not going to go into this. It’s an FT obsession and frankly you can all fuck off. OK?”.
Maybe there is something in the oft-repeated claim that Mandelson was an inspirations for the sweary spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in Armando Iannucci’s political comedy The Thick of It.
Calling Donald Trump a “moron” who is “little short of a white nationalist and racist” and who has views that are ” anathema to mainstream British opinion” aside, Mandelson has also recently faced scrutiny for his links to China. When asked about the claims he had met with Chinese leaders responsible for “transnational repression”, Mandelson rejected it as “ridiculous nonsense”.