Remember me
Mandelson, who was sacked as UK ambassador to the US after details emerged last year regarding his relationship with the convicted paedophile financier, was also best man at Phillips’s wedding.
It comes after the latest release on Friday of the so-called Epstein files appeared to show Mandelson featured in several bank statements published by the US government. The bank statements were from 2003 and 2004, when Mandelson was serving as a Labour MP for Hartlepool.
Other disclosures show undated photographs of a man who appears to be Mandelson standing in underwear and a T-shirt, alongside a woman whose face has been hidden.
In response, the Labour peer said he could not recollect the payments or the photographs being taken, including their location or the circumstances.
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The latest revelations prompted the SNP to insist that it would be an “insult” to allow Mandelson to return to the House of Lords , with the taxpayer footing the bill.
After the revelations emerged, Phillips opened his Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips programme with a monologue addressing his long-time friend.
“Peter Mandelson and I met for the first time almost exactly 50 years ago on a march protesting against apartheid,” he said, looking directly into the camera.
“It's no secret here in Westminster that over the following three decades, he and I worked together, first as student activists, then as television journalists and as elected politicians.
“He's appeared more than once on this program.
“We were and are still friends. His political career was long and illustrious. Mine was brief and disastrous.”
Referring to his term as chair of the London Assembly, in 2000 to 2001 and 2002 to 2003, Phillips said that Mandelson “made it clear to me that my lack of tact and disdain for compromise meant that I'd be better suited to journalism than party politics.”
He said that he had not spoken to Mandelson personally about the latest tranche of documents, and that he had declined to come on to the programme for an interview.
“However, he has told this program that neither he nor his husband Reynaldo Avila de Silva, has any record or recollection of receiving payments in 2003 or 2004 or knows whether the documentation is authentic,” Phillips continued.
“He does accept that Ronaldo received a loan of $10,000 from Epstein whilst he, Mandelson, was a senior cabinet minister, and he acknowledges that in the same period, Epstein was amongst those who lobbied him on important policy matters.
“There's no suggestion that Lord Mandelson has done anything unlawful, but I would claim the friend's privilege to tell Peter that he has been, at best, naive and foolish, at worst, greedy and duplicitous.
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“Whatever is true as far as politics and public office are concerned, for Peter Mandelson, this is the end.
“The question now is whether the price of his misjudgment is to be paid only by the man himself, or whether those who trusted him and elevated him to the peerage and to one of the highest diplomatic posts available should also share in his ignominy.”
The monologue was posted on X, formerly Twitter, with the caption describing it as Phillips “reflecting” on the Mandelson controversy.
It garnered over 315,000 views, but the comments were turned off.
Viewers took to reposting the video to express their outrage.
Academic Gerry Hassan said: “Peter Mandelson's ‘friends’. People who used Mandelson's world of corporate, political and sleazy contacts. And who were more than happy to be used. Client journalism at its worst.”
“Trevor Philips running cover for Peter the Paedophile Mandelson,” one said of the clip.
Another social media user asked: “Is this what passes for journalism?”
“Might it be better to have news presenters who did not, say, have Peter Mandelson as the best man at their wedding? I’m sure it’d be possible to do that,” one user wrote.
Another added: “Just a reminder that Mandy [Mandelson] has enabled a rapist and received a great deal of money from that rapist. But @TrevorPTweets excuses these crimes for his friends.”
One said simply: “I’m still Peter Mandelson’s friend.” The post also featured three red flag emojis.
Another described Phillips’s monologue as “jaw-droppingly arrogant”.
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“These files detail the horrific abuse suffered by girls by the rich and the powerful,” they said.
“Yet this man uses his platform in this manner. He should be removed from the channel immediately.”
One added: “Maybe all our media figures and politicians being life-long friends is a bad thing in the end? Who knew?”
Underneath the post, the Sky News account posted a statement from a spokesperson for Mandelson. It read: "No one can say who or where the photo was taken. Lord Mandelson has absolutely no idea or indeed whether it has any connection to Epstein at all."