LONDON — The British government announced Thursday that it had fired its ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, after a flurry of newly published emails and other correspondence painted a vivid portrait of his close ties to financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In a statement, the Foreign Office said, “The emails show that the depth and extent of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment.”

The revelations about Mandelson, and the fact that the government was caught off guard by them, are a stinging embarrassment to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was already reeling from the resignation last week of his deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner, after a tax imbroglio.

It casts a shadow over

See Full Page