Keir Starmer catches shrapnel from Epstein files
National Post, 15 February 2026
The documents were aimed at U.S. targets but exploded in London
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is having a very bad month, perhaps so bad that his premiership is fatally wounded. He has apologized for spectacularly poor judgment in appointing Lord Peter Mandelson, in December 2024, as the U.K. ambassador to the United States. Starmer sacked Mandelson nine months later for being rather more friendly with Jeffrey Epstein than he had previously allowed.
When it was revealed recently that Mandelson had allegedly passed government secrets to Epstein for potential financial benefit, the police were called in and Mandelson was forced out of the Labour Party and the House of Lords.
Starmer clearly judged incorrectly what the British people would tolerate in their diplomatic representatives. But was his judgement wrong about the kind of man who might wield influence with the Trump administration?
This week the high-profile Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, revealed under oath that he too, like Mandelson, had publicly lied about his contacts with Epstein. Just last October he said (not under oath) that, after meeting Epstein in 2005 as next door neighbours in Manhattan, he immediately resolved with his wife to “never be in a room with that disgusting person ever again.”
The Lutnicks found off-putting the tour Epstein gave of his home, featuring a prominent massage table which the host presented in a creepy fashion.
Then in 2012, Lutnick packed up the whole gang — wife, his four children, nannies, other friends, their children, their nannies — and visited Epstein for lunch on his notorious private island. All very wholesome, Lutnick insisted. No massage-table tour for the little ones. Still, he had lied.
In Washington, lies are just the lubricating grease of the Trump administration. Nothing new to see here.
In London, Mandelson’s lies were politically lethal. In the last week, Sir Keir sacked his chief-of-staff, communications director and, astonishingly, the cabinet secretary, the nation’s top civil servant. No Westminster prime minister has had such a costly scandal since Justin Trudeau lost his attorney general, president of the treasury board, principal secretary and clerk of the Privy Council (Ottawa’s equivalent of cabinet secretary) over his attempts to shield SNC-Lavalin from prosecution.
The culture of Westminster and the culture of Washington were revealed this week to be starkly different. In Mandelson, Sir Keir chose a man he considered well-suited to the Trump administration. He was corrupt in public administration, having had to resign twice from cabinet in 1999 and 2001 over allegations of financial chicanery. He was inclined to associate with rich men of dubious morals. He found it easy to be dishonest. So easy that more than thirty years ago he acquired the nickname “Prince of Darkness” for being ruthless and reckless in partisan rhetoric. He was endlessly adaptable in subordinating principles to seek power.
Who better to impress Donald Trump? He would be as comfortable in the White House as the tech oligarchs and the head of FIFA.
It went well for the first six months, while Trump resisted fulfilling his campaign promise to release the Epstein files. But Trump could not protect Epstein’s friends forever, and so the dam broke.
Speaking of dams, or rivers, Lutnick had another moment this week. On Monday, he met with the Maroun family, owners of the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and Detroit. The Marouns have been lobbying and spending fiercely for decades to prevent a much-needed new bridge from opening, as it would cut into their monopoly profits. The Marouns were finally defeated when Stephen Harper figured out a way to get the bridge built.
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