LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer acknowledged Monday that he made an error in judgment when he picked Jeffrey Epstein’s friend Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to Washington, batting away a barrage of calls to resign over a scandal that has left his leadership teetering.

Starmer said he would have withdrawn the appointment if he’d known Mandelson had failed security checks, as he tried to explain why Mandelson was given the UK’s most important diplomatic post. Starmer placed blame squarely on Foreign Office officials who, he said, failed to tell him about the security concerns and approved Mandelson’s appointment despite them.

Starmer told lawmakers in the House of Commons that ”I would not have gone ahead with the appointment” had he known the truth. He called it “frankly staggering” that officials didn’t tell him about the failed vetting.

“At the heart of this, there is also a judgment I made that was wrong,” Starmer added. “I should not have appointed Peter Mandelson.”

He added, “I take responsibility for that decision, and I apologize again to the victims of the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who were clearly failed by my decision.”

Starmer fired Mandelson in September, nine months into the job, when new details emerged about his friendship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.

His explanation was greeted with jeers from opposition lawmakers, incredulous that the nation’s leader hadn’t known about the failed security vetting.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said Starmer’s lack of curiosity was hard to believe.

“It doesn’t appear that he asked any questions at all. Why? Because he didn’t want to know,” she said.

Starmer denies misleading Parliament

Starmer was attempting to set the record straight after previously telling lawmakers that “due process” was........

© The Times of Israel