Politics
Epstein was a Zionist white supremacist who hated Black people
This article contains graphic details of rape and sexual assault.
The latest tranche of Epstein documents have provided further evidence that he was not only a vile paedophile, he was also an appalling racist. We’ve previously covered Epstein’s sickening fantasies about using the supposedly “superior gene pool” of himself and the children he raped to create a “super-race”.
However, the new files provide further evidence of his eugenicist views. In an email to linguist and political dissident Noam Chomsky, the now-dead former financier suggested that Black people are less intelligent than others:
The test score gap amongst African-Americans is well documented. 20 years of testing. Many countries. James Watson had some of his private views made public and hence his dismissal from society. He told me that after one sentence he became an un-person. Making things better might require accepting some uncomfortable facts. You told me that.
Epstein – racist views and racist friends
James Watson was a Nobel Prize winner alongside Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins, and Rosalind Franklin following their discovery of DNA. He was also a horrible racist. He said:
There’s a difference on the average between blacks and whites in IQ tests. I would say the difference is genetic.
Watson described himself as “gloomy” regarding Africa’s prospects due to his claim that:
…all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours — whereas all the testing says not really.
Epstein appeared to indicate in another email that he was meeting Watson for breakfast. A white supremacist podcaster called Jean-François Gariépy also says Epstein gave him $25,000.
Epstein was of course a major backer of the world’s leading racist endeavour, the genocidal land theft project that is so-called ‘Israel’. He was a likely Mossad spy and has been pictured wearing an Israeli Genocide Forces sweatshirt. He was also a close friend of former ‘Israeli’ prime minister Ehud Barak. It is alleged Barak was the man who Virginia Giuffre alleged raped her “more savagely than anyone had before”.
Former ‘Israeli’ PM bemoans “quality” of African and Arab people
Now, in a newly released audio recording, Barak can be heard in conversation with Epstein. Adding an extra layer of racism to his already racist desire to have new arrivals to ‘Israel’ steal Palestinian land, Barak talks of controlling the “quality” of these aspiring land thieves. He says:
…we can control the quality much more effectively than our ancestors, or the founding fathers of Israel, could deal with the waves. [It] was a kind of salvation wave from North Africa, from the Arabs, from wherever.
They took whatever came, just to save people. Now we can be selective.
Note the use of “whatever”, rather than “whoever”, as if Black and Arab people are just convenient objects to pad out the settler-colony’s demographics. Rather than what he clearly sees as sub-standard material, the Nazi instead wants another “one million Russians”.
A number similar to that came to invade historic Palestine in the immediate aftermath of the Soviet Union’s collapse. Given it’s a conversation with a child rapist, Barak – being the sickening creep he is – inevitably turns the conversation in a smutty direction, saying:
I think that many will prefer it to be Belorussians [who arrive]. Many young, handsome girls will come. Tall, thin.
This is the only moment Epstein can be heard in the recording, letting out a chuckle.
Zionism is a fundamentally racist ideology
Of course, this all makes sense, given Zionism is a fundamentally racist project at its core. It grants one ethnic group exclusive rights to land they have no claim on, as they exterminate the native inhabitants. The racism which Barak espouses has just been an additional stain on top of that underlying bigotry.
Historian Avi Shlaim has recounted his early experiences of racism as an Arab Jew upon his family’s arrival from Iraq. Ethiopian Jews who arrived in the Zionist pseudo-state were sterilised, so they couldn’t outnumber the preferred white population. Arab people in ‘Israel’ are denied the same provision of services as their Jewish counterparts, including access to bomb shelters.
It’s not only racism that the Zionist entity shares with Epstein. It is also a vehicle for mass sexual abuse. Paedophiles have used the apartheid colony as a means of evading justice elsewhere. The most senior figures in the Zionist government have refrained from deporting such individuals.
Palestinian children are routinely sexually assaulted in the brutal prison system run by the terrorists in West Jerusalem. Children are “hit or touched on the genitals”, with 69% being strip searched.
Palestinians have recounted systematic sexual abuse in the ‘Israeli’ system of torture camps. Those kidnapped describe being raped with dogs, iron bars and batons. Tamer Qarmut was kidnapped from Gaza in November 2023. He described his abuse:
He [the guard[ shoved a wooden stick up my anus, left it there for about a minute, and pulled it out. Then he shoved it back in, even harder, and I screamed at the top of my lungs. After a minute, he pulled the stick out again, told me to open my mouth, pushed the stick into my mouth and forced me to lick it.
Knesset members have defended the right to rape kidnapped Palestinians. They even staged a violent protest at a torture centre when it appeared rapists may be held to account for their crimes.
The Zionist entity is effectively Epstein in ‘state’ form. A project of massive racism, violence and sexual abuse, allowed to continue its crimes way beyond the time it should have been held to account.
Featured image via the Canary
Mass arrests by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are overwhelming the US court system in Minnesota.
The Trump administration’s massive deportation spree in Minnesota – pompously titled ‘Operation Metro Surge’ – created a corresponding surge in emergency legal cases. This left courts so short-staffed that several top lawyers quit outright. Still others have voiced their intention to follow suit in recent weeks.
The Minnesota US attorney’s office stated that:
The Civil Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in this district has been utterly overwhelmed by the number of recent habeas petitions in Minnesota, during a time when the Office is short staffed.
ICE flouting orders
Justice Department records show massive numbers of legal violations by ICE, including violations of judges’ orders, illegal arrests, and botched court filings.
Minnesota judges are particularly alarmed at defiance from Homeland Security and their Justice Department counterparts in Washington. In particular, ICE is regularly flouting orders to bring their detainees before a judge when ordered – a legal right and duty known as habeas corpus.
Politico described one situation in which:
In one recent case, ICE arrested a man with no criminal record who was residing legally in Minnesota on a rare “T” visa, meant for victims of a severe form of human trafficking or who aided law enforcement in a trafficking investigation. A day after a magistrate judge inquired about the case, the Justice Department said it should be dismissed because the man had been released. Four days later, however, DOJ sent a cryptic filing misidentifying the man as “she” and suggesting he had been relocated to a detention facility in El Paso.
DOJ then blew off the deadline to clarify what had occurred, leading the judge to conclude that “ICE transferred Petitioner from Minnesota to Texas without notice and indeed, from this record it appears that even [DOJ] may not have known about the transfer.”
‘Broken system’
Underscoring the depths of the crisis, on Tuesday 2 February, a judge asked prosecutor Julie Le why his federal court orders were being ignored by ICE. Le, in apparent distress, said:
The system sucks. This job sucks. And I am trying every breath that I have so that I can get you what you need.
She went on to add that:
Sometime I wish you would just hold me in contempt, your honor, so that I can have a full 24 hours of sleep.
Le argued that ICE officials simply ignore her and other Justice Department lawyers when they tell them to obey the courts. Even simple inquiries went completely unanswered, and Le’s threats of legal repercussions made no impact.
The prosecutor branded the situation a “broken system”, and even revealed that she’d tried to quit – but there was no-one ready to replace her.
Open authoritarianism
However, Trump’s team are denying their responsibility for the situation. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), tried to blame the judges themselves for the crisis:
The Trump administration is more than prepared to handle the legal caseload necessary to deliver President Trump’s deportation agenda for the American people. It should come as no surprise that more habeas petitions are being filed by illegal aliens — especially after many activist judges have attempted to thwart President Trump from fulfilling the American people’s mandate for mass deportations.
This line of reasoning is severely faulty. It is a court’s role, when necessary, to determine the legality of an individual’s actions. If the state could ignore a habeas petition on the grounds of an individual being “illegal”, it could simply declare anybody illegal without trial.
This is both clearly a monstrous abuse of power, and precisely what the Trump administration is doing.
A Justice Department spokesperson likewise blamed “rogue judges” for the massive increase in detention cases. They argued that without the judges rulings, there wouldn’t be any “concern over DHS following orders.”
That is to say, if the judges didn’t demand that ICE follows the law, there would be no issue. Again, an openly authoritarian proclamation.
Shock and awe
The fact that Minnesota’s courts are overwhelmed is not a glitch in the system. It’s not a result of the Justice Department being understaffed, or – God forbid – ICE being under-resourced. Rather, this overwhelm is part of the plan.
Trump has always relied on shock and awe tactics. He perpetrates as many open crimes and heinous violations of basic human decency as quickly as possible, such that his opponents barely have time to muster a reaction before the next onslaught.
Because the courts are overwhelmed, ICE and the Trump administration can act with impunity. The administration has said outright that if it’s allowed to break the law, then there won’t be any issues. It intends to break the law; it intends to ignore basic legal rights; it intends to deport anyone it sees fit. This was always the plan.
Featured image via the Canary
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As many as 76% of employees who have been diagnosed with, or suspect they might have, ADHD, say that they have chosen not to tell their boss about it. A whopping 65% do so out of fear they’ll be discriminated against by management.
Of course, as consultant psychiatrist Dr Devendra Karnal from Private ADHD & Autism UK pointed out, “Under the Equality Act, an employer’s duty to make reasonable adjustments only applies if they know about the condition”.
But, career psychologist Dr George Sik from eras pointed out, the caution is understandable.
“Many people delay telling their employer about ADHD because they’re trying to protect themselves,” he told HuffPost UK.
“There’s still a real fear of being judged as less capable or more difficult to manage, even when someone is performing well. For a lot of people, waiting feels safer than risking the label being misunderstood.”
Here, the experts shared their guide to discussing ADHD with your boss.
When is the right time to tell your employer about ADHD?
“There isn’t a single right moment to disclose ADHD, as it really just depends on how safe the environment feels and whether support is genuinely needed. However, when it’s starting to affect your workload or wellbeing, that might be a sign that staying silent is costing more than speaking up,” Dr Sik told us.
“Disclosure tends to land best when it’s raised proactively in a calm, neutral setting, as opposed to raising it reactively during something like a performance review.”
How should I approach a discussion about ADHD with my boss?
Consultant psychiatrist Dr Bongani Dhuba, also from Private ADHD & Autism UK, said that focusing on outcomes instead of labels can help.
Instead of saying you’re constantly distracted, he suggested, try saying something like, “I produce my best work with written briefs and minimal interruptions”.
“Many people cope well initially, especially in structured roles, but struggle later as demands increase or routines change,” Dr Sik added.
“Rather than focusing on the diagnosis itself, it can help to explain what’s changed and what would help you work at your best. For example, you could say: ‘I’ve noticed I’m struggling more with competing deadlines, and believe a couple of small adjustments would really help me perform better.’”
“Managers tend to respond better when the conversation is about performance and solutions, not personal shortcomings. You’re not asking for special treatment but just explaining how to do your job well.”
Anything else?
Yes! Dr Karnal said you should present your strengths at the same time as sharing your support needs.
“Remember to present the full picture and highlight the value you bring, not only the extra support and conditions you’ll need,” the psychiatrist said.
Don’t apologise for your differences, and, Dr Sik advised, “Disclosure tends to land best when it’s raised proactively in a calm, neutral setting, as opposed to raising it reactively during something like a performance review”.
Document everything you and your employer have agreed on, Dr Duba added.
“If adjustments are discussed, it’s a good idea to follow up with a short summary email to protect the employee and the employer from misunderstandings later.”
Starmer’s mate and surrender deal architect Philippe Sands was confronted in Parliament by a Chagossian. Save Chagos…
The Trump administration has returned $500 million in oil money from previous oil transactions with Venezuela. A US official said it was to keep the country’s services running. The US kidnapped Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro on 3 January. In his place, former oil minister deputy Delcy Rodriguez is running the oil-rich nation.
A US official told The New Arab on 4 February:
Venezuela has officially received all $500 million from the first Venezuelan oil sale.
The unnamed individual said the money would be:
disbursed for the benefit of the Venezuelan people at the discretion of the US government.
The cash seems to have been from an oil deal struck in January:
So in essence, we allowed Venezuela to use their own oil to generate revenue to pay teachers and firefighters and police officers and keep the function of government operating so we didn’t have systemic collapse.
The official said the money, which had been held in Qatar, was a:
temporary, short-term account to ensure Venezuela received the funds needed to operate.
Venezuela: agreed-upon procedures
The official even explained there were plans to move money from future oil sales:
into a fund located in the US and to authorise expenditures for any obligation or expense of the government of Venezuela or its agencies and instrumentalities upon instructions that are consistent with agreed-upon procedures.
The New Arab also reported pro-Maduro street protests. Maduro’s son Nicolasito was in attendance. He told reporters of the demonstrators:
These people are not American. We have achieved a profound anti-imperialist consciousness.
Maduro is in a New York jail. He claims he is a prisoner of war. The US has indicted him for drugs and weapon possession charges Yet whatever the balance of power in Venezuela is now – and whatever the anti-imperialist rhetoric on display – this seems to suggest that the Venezuelan government is not calling the shots any more.
Trump’s massive military build-up and eventual special forces raid on Venezuela seems to have done the job. The US seeks to dominate the Western hemisphere entirely. Trump has now moved onto bullying Iran. The Venezuelan revolution, whatever its merits and shortcomings, seems to have stalled for now.
Time will tell if it becomes another footnote in US imperial history.
Featured image via the Canary
3 min read
Nigel Farage claims that he has learned from UKIP’s mistakes a decade ago when it comes to ensuring Reform UK’s success in Wales is not a short-lived phenomenon.
At a press conference on Thursday, Farage unveiled former Conservative councillor Dan Thomas as Reform’s new leader in Wales, making him the latest Tory to make the switch.
Fellow defectors Laura Anne Jones and James Evans were in the audience in Newport’s International Convention Centre. The recent flow of defections, which includes former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and ex-shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick, is seen by Reform figures as helping maintain the party’s momentum heading into the May elections.
Reform is expected to make significant gains at the Senedd elections, with recent polling putting the party far ahead of Labour, which has dominated politics in Wales since its devolved institutions were established at the turn of the century, as well as the Tories. The contest to lead Wales is seen as a two-horse race between Reform and Plaid Cymru.
Thomas, a former council leader in north London, said he had “fond memories” of growing up in south Wales, where his grandfather and great-grandfather were miners.
It is not the first time that Farage has been on the cusp of an electoral breakthrough in Wales, though.
In 2016, his former party, the UK Independence Party (UKIP), won 13 per cent of the popular vote to return seven Senedd seats. By the end of that parliament in 2021, however, after a period of splits and infighting, just one of those seven sought re-election.
Last year, UKIP’s former leader in Wales, who went on to lead Reform in Cardiff, Nathan Gill, was sentenced to prison for taking pro-Russia bribes.
Asked by PoliticsHome how his current party would avoid the mistakes of UKIP in Wales, Farage said that candidate vetting would be “absolutely key”. The party, which continues to lead UK-wide opinion polls, though there are some signs that its support has dipped in recent weeks, is asking candidates to go through media training led by TV personality Jeremy Kyle and ex-LBC presenter Colin Brazier in Reform HQ.
“The choice of candidates in some cases that were picked to stand for UKIP at that moment in time were completely against my [vision] as leader of the party,” Farage told PoliticsHome.
Farage added: “Two or three of them were wholly unsuitable in every way. But leaders don’t always get their way… and quite shortly thereafter, after [a] quarter of a century, I left [UKIP] believing it was going in the wrong direction.”
Llyr Powell, who was the Reform candidate at last year’s Caerphilly by-election and who worked in the UKIP press team during the 2016 Senedd election, suggested that her former party was destined to fall away in Wales, having achieved its aim of successfully campaigning for Brexit.
“Nigel’s goal in UKIP was always to win an in-out referendum,” she said.
“We’re all united behind the fact we want to see Nigel Farage in Number 10 now.”
While Farage said he wants tighter control of candidate selection, he also conceded that Thomas and any newly elected Reform Senedd members must be given space by Reform’s Westminster operation to make their own decisions.
“When it comes to devolved matters, it’s up to Reform UK in Wales to make those decisions,” he told PoliticsHome.
He added: “I wouldn’t even pretend that I knew what needs to happen within the failing NHS in Wales.”
Victoria Beckham has joined her Spice Girls bandmates for an impromptu sing-along of one of their signature hits.
On Thursday, Victoria’s youngest son Cruz Beckham shared a video on social media showing him accompanying his mum and her fellow Spice Girls Melanie C, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton on the guitar for a rendition of the ballad Viva Forever.
Cruz’s girlfriend, Jackie Apostel, also appears towards the end of the clip.
“I think I found my openers… you think they have potential?” he captioned the post, in reference to his upcoming tour.
Viva Forever is clearly a favourite for Cruz, who dueted with his mum on another rendition of the chart-topping ballad in a video he posted online back in November.
The Beckhams haven’t been far from the headlines in recent weeks, after Victoria’s eldest son Brooklyn Peltz Beckham confirmed rumours that he is now estranged from the rest of his family in a series of candid Instagram posts.
Amid Victoria’s family drama, she has been spending time with the Spice Girls, including last month, when she shared a photo of the group, minus Mel B, celebrate Emma’s 50th birthday.
Meanwhile, Victoria’s solo music has also had a resurgence recently, after Not Such An Innocent Girl became the UK’s best-selling single of the week back in January, in light of the Beckham family fall-out.
While it did not make the official top 100, it became the most downloaded song of the week just days after Brooklyn spoke out against his family.
Fans are no doubt hoping this accidental musical comeback could lead to Victoria reconsidering joining the Spice Girls for a 30th reunion tour, after she maintained that she would rather concentrate on her fashion line.
As recently as October, Victoria admitted she was “tempted” to reunite on-stage with the girls after seeing the success Oasis had, even if she doubted she’d be able to find the time because of her designing career.
Meanwhile, Melanie C recently teased on Heart radio that the group was also considering reuniting, although she didn’t specify whether this would include Victoria, who famously did not take part in the group’s 2019 stadium tour.
US President Donald Trump said it “bothers” him that former President Bill Clinton is facing scrutiny and an order to testify about his past ties to the late child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, who Trump infamously also had a relationship with.
“It bothers me that somebody is going after Bill Clinton. See, I like Bill Clinton. I still like Bill Clinton,” Trump told NBC News in a White House interview Wednesday.
Asked what he likes about the former president, Trump answered: “I liked his behaviour towards me. I thought he got me, he understood me.”
This expressed support came one day after Trump called it “a shame” that Clinton and his wife, Hillary, have been subpoenaed to testify about their ties to Epstein.
Bill Clinton’s relationship with Epstein was documented in investigative files released by the Justice Department last week. The files include a shirtless photo of Clinton in a hot tub with someone that a DOJ official described as a “victim” of Epstein’s sexual abuse. He has denied wrongdoing and having any knowledge that Epstein was abusing underage girls.
Trump, who also faces unverified allegations of sexual misconduct involving minors in the documents and has denied wrongdoing, said it’s time to “move on” from the Epstein files and expressed support for the Clintons. This about-face follows Trump infamously calling for the former secretary of state to be locked up during and long after their vitriolic 2016 presidential campaign battle.
“I think it’s a shame, to be honest. I always liked him. Her? Yeah, she’s a very capable woman. She was better in debating than some of the other people, I will tell you that,” he told reporters on Tuesday. “She was smarter. She’s a smart woman. I hate to see it in many ways. I hate to see it, but then look at me, they went after me like — you know, they wanted me to go to jail for the rest of my life. Then it turned out I was innocent.”
Former MP Rory Stewart has no idea what a low income is. The posh boy podcaster beloved of centrist dads put forward a rousing defence of impoverished – checks notes – Members of Parliament in an interview during which he wore a frankly troubling polo neck jumper.
In a hand-wavey waffle about poor MPs being easily manipulated by the wealthy (what?), Stewart told LBC:
We’ve got hundred of MPs on very low incomes, some of them very insecure, struggling to get jobs when they leave, they are perfect prey for wealthy well-connected men who can offer them board positions, invite them to parties, put them on private planes.
Here’s Rory Stewart describing MPs as being on “low incomes”.
Their basic annual salary is £93,904, putting them in the top 5% of earners.
There’s a nuanced debate to be had about MPs’ pay, but describing them as “low income” is an insult to those who really are. pic.twitter.com/2qE8fYn1sJ
— James Hanson (@jhansonradio) February 4, 2026
Okay, mate. For the record the basic MPs wage is £93,904 per year. That’s after their 2.8% pay rise from April 2025.
The average wage in the UK seems to be about £30,000. The mathematical geniuses among us will notice that that is…. quite a lot less than what MPs get paid.
It’s almost like Roderick James Nugent “Rory” Stewart – a humble Oxford educated one-time tutor to the future king of England, former army officer, and imperial governor of a province of Iraq – hasn’t got a fucking clue what he is talking about.
Roderick rides again
Stewart, born in Hong Kong to a diplomat who is said to have been a top candidate to head MI6, spent a number of years as a Tory MP.
For the 4287th time, I find myself going back to his *drum roll* voting record from those heady days.
Admittedly, I usually reach for these receipts when some centrist dad fuckwit in the pub tries to claim Stewart is a sort of sensible, moral conservative….
But any excuse to get Roderick’s voting record out is good enough for me. I have actually had it tattooed on my body so people can just read it now.
Let’s have a little look at Rory’s votes on benefits:
-
Almost always voted for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits
-
Generally voted for reducing housing benefit for social tenants deemed to have excess bedrooms (which Labour describe as the “bedroom tax”)
-
Consistently voted against paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability
-
Consistently voted against raising welfare benefits at least in line with prices
Sounds like man who really understands the value of money on these benighted islands, doesn’t he?
How about tuition fees?:
-
Consistently voted for university tuition fees
Oof…
-
Almost always voted for reducing the rate of corporation tax
Oh Rory…
-
Generally voted against measures to prevent climate change
Bloody hell, Roderick. If only the melts knew how to Google, you’d lose half the listenership on your shit podcast with war criminal Alastair Campbell.
Speaking of which, where are you on war – a very expensive and wasteful business that…
-
Consistently voted for replacing Trident with a new nuclear weapons system
-
Consistently voted for use of UK military forces in combat operations overseas
Immigration? Come on Rozzer, you can pull this back from the brink.
-
Tended to vote for a stricter asylum system
-
Consistently voted for stronger laws and enforcement of immigration rules
Well, shit. It turns out Rory is just a bog-standard Tory. Nothing more, nothing less. Rory is simply defending the well-off. Which includes MPs. And he isn’t convincing anybody otherwise. With the sole exception of your tedious Rest is Politics-obsessed Blairite uncle who likes to play devil’s advocate over things he knows nothing about in the pub.
Featured image via the Canary
Keir Starmer threw himself on the mercy of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims today as he desperately tried to save his premiership.
The prime minister stared down the barrel of a TV camera and apologised to them for appointing Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to Washington, despite his known links to the convicted paedophile.
“I am sorry,” he said. “Sorry for what was done to you. Sorry for having believing Mandelson’s lies and appointed him. And sorry that even now you are forced to watch this story unfold in public once again.”
But the prime minister’s audience was as much his own MPs as it was the women who were abused by Epstein.
They are the ones who hold his fate in their hands, and the bad news for Starmer is that, if anything, they are even angrier than they were yesterday.
One veteran backbencher described the mood among his colleagues as “universally low”.
Another MP said: “Taking refuge in constituency stuff this weekend seems appealing.
“But trying to pretend it’s all a bad dream for a few days won’t work, as constituents will be taking the chance to make very clear how they feel about Starmer and Mandelson and that’ll end up feeding into things back in parliament next week.”
Starmer’s argument is that he was unaware of the extent of Lord Mandelson’s ongoing friendship with Epstein, and was lied to by the then Labour peer during the vetting process for the ambassadorial post.
“He portrayed Epstein as someone he barely knew,” the PM said. “And when that became clear and it was not true, I sacked him.”
But that is failing to convince even his own ministers, with one telling HuffPost UK: “Everyone knows Peter was always going to be a high risk appointment and that’s the most disappointing thing.
“On balance the ‘is this worth the risk’ question should have been answered with a ‘no’.”
For a prime minister and former barrister, Starmer does seem to be remarkably incurious.
The full extent of Mandelson’s deep connections with Epstein were, of course, unknown until the latest tranche of documents on the billionaire financier were released last week by the US Department of Justice.
Details of him allegedly passing on market sensitive information in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash has stunned Westminster and have put Mandelson at the heart of a criminal investigation.
Nevertheless, there was enough evidence available long before Starmer made Mandelson his ambassador to show that he had maintained contact with Epstein after his conviction.
An internal report from 2019 by the JP Morgan bank containing emails between the pair was reported on by the Financial Times in 2023.
Photographs of the pair shopping in the Caribbean and blowing out candles on a birthday cake in Epstein’s Paris apartment were also widely in circulation.
Given that, it is hard to understand how Starmer could have bought Mandelson’s line that the pair “barely knew” one another.
Labour MP Richard Burgon – no fan of Starmer’s, it must be said – remarked: “No minister should be giving the impression that Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein – even after his jailing – wasn’t known before Mandelson became ambassador. It was.”
Other MPs insist the moment of maximum danger for Starmer has passed, at least in the short term.
But the feeling remains that the PM is now just one mis-step away from a full-blown leadership crisis – and his rivals are preparing to strike.
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