SARAH FERGUSON HAS lost her Freedom of the City of York title after councillors voted unanimously to remove the honour over her links to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

City of York Council stripped her of the title during a meeting this evening.

The removal comes following fresh revelations about the former duchess’s connections to Epstein.

Speaking during the debate, Liberal Democrat councillor Darryl Smalley said: “We now know, following the release of thousands of documents, that Sarah Ferguson too had a close friendship with Epstein, which continued well beyond his conviction.

“We don’t expect recipients of York’s highest honour to be saints. We simply do not want them to be best friends of convicted paedophiles.

“We stand with victims. We stand for the rule of the rule of law.
We stand for decency.”

He added: “We must wipe the slate clean, draw a line. Remember our duty to victims of sexual abuse, and move forward with our highest honour reserved for those that truly deserve the privilege.
I urge all councillors to vote for the motion.”

Councillor Claire Douglas, leader of the Labour group on the local authority, added: “As the people of York would expect, holding this status requires upholding the values and behaviours consistent with such an honour.

“Those who continued to associate with Jeffrey Epstein after his crimes became widely known fall well short of these expectations.

“Sarah Ferguson falls into this category as the Epstein files have shown. I therefore call on council to support the motion as presented.”

Sarah and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor were given the honour as a wedding present from York in 1987 during a visit to the city.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his ex-wife were given the honour as a wedding present from York in 1987 PA PA

Councillors removed Andrew’s Freedom of the City of York in 2022 and the meeting at the time heard that he was the first person ever to have it taken away.

The honorary freedom of the city is given to residents who demonstrate notable service, to distinguished people and to royalty, the council has said previously.

Six companies linked to the former duchess started winding down in the wake of the publication of the Epstein files, according to Companies House documents.

Sarah’s Trust, a charity she founded, also announced it would close “for the foreseeable future”.

The Press Association has approached Sarah Ferguson’s representative for comment.

‘Hate the fact I made that mistake’

Meanwhile, British prime minister Keir Starmer has said “I beat myself up” over his decision to make Peter Mandelson US ambassador and “nobody has been harder on me in relation to the mistake I made there than me”.

Starmer said he “dwells” on his appointment of the peer to Britain’s top diplomatic posting abroad despite the former Labour grandee’s association with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Peter Mandelson with Keir Starmer Alamy Alamy

He faces ongoing questions about his judgment after the release of UK Government documents that showed he was warned before approving Mandelson for the role of a “general reputational risk” over the peer’s association with the financier.

Speaking to Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast, he said: “Nobody has been harder on me in relation to the mistake I made there than me.

“I’ve spent years trying to deal with violence against women and girls.

“And as I look back at it now and the mistake I made, I’ve been really hard on myself. In the immediate days after this all came out, I was particularly hard on myself. So yeah, everybody else was criticising, I get all that.

“But nobody was criticising me more than myself. I’m not trying to, you know, make that a mitigation or an excuse, but, I know I made a mistake.”

He added: “And I hate the fact I made that mistake. And I dwell on it. I beat myself up about it.

“It’s certainly not a mistake I’d ever repeat.

“But there’s no criticism anybody else can level at me that will be as harsh as the criticism I dished out for myself.”

Mandelson, a political appointment rather than a career diplomat, was sacked from his Washington role in September last year over his links with Epstein, who died in 2019.

The first tranche of documents related to the decision was published earlier this month following a demand for transparency by MPs, with more to follow.

However, concerns have been raised that exchanges relating to the appointment could be lost as a result of the theft of former No 10 chief of staff Morgan McSweeney’s mobile phone in London in October 2025.

Former Downing Street chief of staff Morgan McSweeney PA PA

Police have taken the unusual step of releasing a transcript of the former senior adviser’s 999 call reporting the crime, in which he gives his name, a personal email address and a home address.

The Metropolitan Police wrongly recorded the theft as having taken place in east London after Cork native McSweeney incorrectly gave his location as Belgrave Street, rather than Belgrave Road in Westminster.

This meant officers checked the wrong CCTV and concluded there were no realistic lines of inquiry to follow. This is now being reviewed.

The Cabinet Office does have some of the messages between McSweeney and Mandelson, it is understood.

Speaking to broadcasters on a visit to Helsinki, Starmer said it was “a little bit-far-fetched” to link the theft to the release of Government correspondence about the ambassadorship.

“The idea that somehow everybody could have seen that sometime in the future there’d be a request over the phone is, to my mind, a little bit far-fetched.”

MPs moved in February to force the publication of tens of thousands of documents amid questions over the extent of what was known about the peer’s links to Epstein before he was handed the Washington job.