LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was warned that Peter Mandelson ‘s friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein exposed the government to “reputational risk,” but he still appointed him as ambassador to the United States, documents released Wednesday show.

Starmer fired Mandelson after nine months in the job when new details of the relationship with Epstein emerged, and now faces a political storm over the appointment. The newly published files show the prime minister ignored red flags raised by his staff when he appointed the savvy but controversial Mandelson to the U.K.’s most important diplomatic post.

Mandelson was briefly arrested last month by police investigating allegations he passed sensitive government information to Epstein a decade and a half ago.

Concerns were raised in a document sent to Starmer in December 2024 when he was considering appointing Mandelson, an elder statesman of the governing Labour Party, to a diplomatic post seen as vital to establishing relations with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

A “due diligence report” prepared by senior civil servants summarized a relationship between Mandelson and Epstein that ran from at least 2002 — the year Mandelson “facilitated” a meeting between Epstein and then-Prime Minister Tony Blair — to 2019, the year of Epstein’s death.

The document notes that “Mandelson reportedly stayed in Epstein’s house while he was in jail in June 2009” for sexual offenses involving a minor, and cites a 2019 report commissioned by JPMorgan which said Epstein had “particularly close relationship” with the then-Prince Andrew and with Mandelson.

It also spelled out unrelated reputational issues over Mandelson’s work in a previous Labour government — when he twice had to resign over financial matters — and his work at Global Counsel, a lobbying firm he co-founded.

Despite the red flags in the documents, Cabinet minister Darren Jones said the due diligence “did not expose the depth and extent” of Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein. He said Mandelson had lied to Starmer about the friendship.

“Peter Mandelson should never have been afforded the privilege of representing this country,” Jones told lawmakers in the House of Commons. “I reiterate for the House that the prime minister deeply regrets taking him at his word. It was a mistake to do so.”

Starmer fired Mandelson in September after an earlier release of documents showed he had maintained contact with Epstein after the financier’s 2008 conviction.

Further details about Mandelson’s ties with Epstein, revealed in a huge trove of files published by the U.S. Department of Justice in January, raised new questions about Starmer’s judgment, driving opponents and even some members of the governing Labour Party to call for the prime minister’s resignation.

Starmer survived the immediate danger, but his position remains fragile, even though he never met Epstein and is not implicated in his crimes.

The 147 pages of documents published Wednesday were released after lawmakers forced Starmer’s government to disclose thousands of files about the decision to name Mandelson to the key diplomatic post at the start of Trump’s second term.