Peter Mandelson told a journalist to “f*** off” when asked about his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Questions have previously been raised about links between Britain’s new incoming ambassador to Washington and Epstein, who died in prison in 2019.
But asked about his relationship with the financier by the Financial Times, Mr Mandelson said he did not want to discuss it.
He said: “I regret ever meeting him or being introduced to him by his partner Ghislaine Maxwell.
“I regret even more the hurt he caused to many young women.
“I’m not going to go into this. It’s an FT (Financial Times) obsession and frankly you can all f*** off. OK?”
Mr Mandelson made the comments during an in-depth interview as he prepared to take up his new role representing Britain’s interests to the US.
Having previously withdrawn his description of US president Donald Trump as “a danger to the world”, he insisted he would treat the new administration with “respect, seriousness and understanding of where they are coming from politically”.
Mr Mandelson also dismissed comments from one of Mr Trump’s advisers who described him as “an absolute moron”, saying the remarks had been the result of “young minds ploughing their own furrow on a sea of too much inauguration alcohol”.
He added: “Some around Mr Trump see me as they view many in Europe. They see me as a left-wing progressive, somebody who might even be anti-business or somebody who might be following the sort of liberalism they’ve just defeated in America.
“What they will discover is I’m not an uber-liberal, I’m not a wokey-cokey sort of person, and I’m pro-market and pro-business.”
But he warned that even his diplomatic ability, which he said saw former president George W Bush dub him “silver tongue”, may not be enough to exempt Britain from Mr Trump’s threatened tariff regime.
He said: “I don’t think we’ll be singled out as a target country, but if tariffs are imposed across the board, then we’ll be caught.”
Unlike some other nations threatened with tariffs, Britain imports more from America than it exports – something ministers have said could help exempt the UK from being targeted by Mr Trump.
Asked whether telling a reporter to f*** off is the behaviour Sir Keir Starmer would expect from a diplomatic appointment, the UK prime minister’s official spokesman said: “I think Lord Mandelson’s experience speaks for itself. He’s widely respected, he’s got significant expertise and will be an excellent ambassador to the United States.”
