FORMER UK AMBASSADOR to the US Peter Mandelson has declined to apologise to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims for remaining friends with the paedophile financier after his conviction.

Mandelson said he had paid a “calamitous” price in being sacked over his association with “evil monster” Epstein.

He apologised for a system which meant Epstein’s victims were not listened to, but not for his own association with the sex offender, which continued after his first conviction.

Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution and soliciting a minor but Mandelson said he believed his excuses and continued to support him.

Mandelson said it was “misplaced loyalty” and “a most terrible mistake on my part”.

He sought to distance himself from Epstein, saying “I was at the edge of this man’s life”, but emails have revealed the extent of their friendship even after the conviction.

In his first broadcast interview since being sacked from his diplomatic role in Washington in September last year, Mandelson told BBC One’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg:

“I never saw anything in his 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.”

He added: “I think the issue is that because I was a gay man in his circle, I was kept separate from what he was doing in the sexual side of his life.”

Asked whether he wanted to apologise, 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 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 by Keir Starmer, Mandelson said: “I understand why I was sacked.”

He added: “I understand why he took the decision he did. But one thing I’m very clear about is I’m not going to seek to reopen or relitigate this issue. I’m moving on.”

Emails showed Mandelson told Epstein to “fight for early release” shortly before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

He is also reported to have told Epstein “I think the world of you” the day before the disgraced financier began his jail sentence.

Asked why he had stuck with Epstein, Mandelson said: “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, but I just have to say this to you: while it’s had the most calamitous consequences for me, the crux of this is not me. The crux of this is not the friendship I had 25 years ago with Jeffrey Epstein.

“The crux of this is that so many hundreds of young women were completely trapped, powerless in a system that did not listen to what they had to say.”