THE GUARDIAN đ” Mandelson praises Trumpâs âgraciousnessâ and declines to apologise for friendship with Jeffrey Epstein â UK politics live
Laura Kuenssberg asks Peter Mandelson if he liked Donald Trump when he was the UK ambassador.
Mandelson says he did like Trump, listing of numerous reasons why, but said he did not like all of his âlanguageâ.
I like him, yes, I liked his humour, his graciousnessâŠ
I liked his directness. You knew exactly what he was thinking and where you stood and what he wanted. And how he was proposing to engage, with you. Did I like in all his language? No, I didnât, did I? Did he make me gasp?
Sometimes, in some of the things he said, of course. But at the end of the day, President Trump is an extraordinary risk taker.
And for me, in the world today, given all its conflicts and its dangers and what and how I would define leadership of a country, I attach a lot of importance.
Mandelson told the BBC that he ânever saw anything in (Epsteinâs) 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 womenâ.
The former UK ambassador to the US said because he was âa gay man in (Epsteinâs) circle, I was kept separate from what he was doing in the sexual side of his lifeâ.
Asked whether he wanted to apologise for his association with Epstein, Mandelson said: âI 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.â
Pressed by Laura Kuenssberg 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, Mandelson said: âI understand why I was sacked.â
Peter Mandelson was then questioned about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and asked about why he continued to be friends with him after his conviction.
Mandelson replied:
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 hadnât.
I gave my support to somebody because I believed what he was telling me and it was misplaced loyalty.
Mandelson was sacked in September over leaked emails in which he expressed his support for Jeffrey Epstein and urged him to âfight for early releaseâ in 2008 while the disgraced financier was facing charges of soliciting sex from minors. The tranche of emails revealed the pair had maintained contact until 2010.
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She told the BBCâs Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme:
What we are seeing is a lot of children spending so many hours a day on platforms that are profiting from their anxiety, from their distraction, and they are actually designed to be addictive.
So what we want to see is common sense, protection for children and freedom for adults.
We want to give parents some understanding that the government understands what theyâre going through. So we want to bring in age limits.
The internet is a wild west, social media in particular. We donât think children should be on there, and we want the industry to see the direction of travel so that we can start working with them now in order to get the proper solutions in place.
escalating crackdown by authorities against the growing protest movement.
Earlier this week, the prime minister, Keir Starmer, condemned the killing of protesters in the country and urged Tehran to âexercise restraintâ
Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene in recent days, warning Iranian leaders against using force against demonstrators. On Saturday, Trump said the US stands âready to helpâ.
The flow of information from Iran has been hampered after the countryâs leaders last week shut down access to the internet and international telephone calls in response to the protests.
A US-based rights group, HRANA, said the death toll had increases to 116, mostly protesters but including 37 members of the security forces.
When asked about intervention by the BBC this morning, Badenoch said she would not have an issue with it, but any action â speaking hypothetically â would need a broad coalition of countries to ensure a stable Iran was created.
by Donald Trumpâs comments on Greenland, but refuses to be drawn on any details, saying she does not deal in hypotheticals.
The Trump administration has said repeatedly that the US needs to gain control of Greenland, a mineral-rich, largely self-governing part of Denmark with foreign and security policy run from Copenhagen. The White House has said using the US military is âalways an optionâ.
Badenoch said it is right to support Nato countries but questioned what exactly the threat in question was. She said:
What Iâm not going to do is give a blank check. What is the reason why we are sending troops to Greenland? Is that for defence? Is that to make sure that we are being more serious? Nato spending has been well below what it should be across the countries. So itâs all about the specifics.
What Iâm not going to do is have an operational conversation when I donât have the level of security briefings and detail which the prime minister has. What I am doing is setting out a broader strategy about what kind of country we need to be.
The world is changing the rules based order is quite clearly breaking down. How are we strengthening ourselves? What Iâm not going to do is pretend to be a military general and, give operational details about where exactly we would send troops. That is not my job.
Social media companies have shown time and again that they will not act responsibly unless they are forced to do so.
If we are serious about safeguarding children, protecting their mental health and combating the behaviour crisis in our schools, then a statutory ban for under-16s must happen urgently.
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Australiaâs world-first social media ban for children under the age of 16 came into effect last month. Under-16s there cannot use major social media platforms, including TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat, and have had their existing profiles deactivated and canât set up new accounts.
Several other countries are considering social media bans for under-15s after Australiaâs ban including Denmark, whose government hopes to introduce a ban in 2026, Norway, and France, who reportedly intends to ban social media platforms for children from the start of the 2026 academic year.
The UK Labour party has not entirely opposed the idea, saying ânothing is off the tableâ but has cautioned that any ban must be âbased on robust evidenceâ.
Kemi Badenoch will likely be grilled on the details of the proposed under-16s social media ban when she appears on the BBCâs Laura Kuenssberg Sunday Politics programme shortly. We will bring you what is said then so stick with us.