2026年4月21日 / 美国东部时间下午12:21 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
伦敦——英国首相基尔·斯塔默再次陷入丑闻，起因是他任命一位杰弗里·爱泼斯坦的旧友担任英国驻华盛顿大使。尽管最近几周特朗普总统多次抨击斯塔默在伊朗战争问题上的立场，但他在周一晚间出手相助，提供了一些虽略显敷衍但确有必要的支持。
英国部分国会议员要求斯塔默辞职，此前有新爆料披露了针对彼得·曼德尔森的政府 vetting（安全审查）流程。曼德尔森与这位已故美国金融家、已定罪性罪犯有着长期密切联系。
“英国首相基尔·斯塔默承认，他在选择驻华盛顿大使时‘判断失误’。我同意，这真是个糟糕的任命，”斯塔默周一再次为爱泼斯坦受害者和英国公众道歉后，特朗普写道。
“不过，他还有足够的时间翻盘！”特朗普补充道。
2025年5月8日，华盛顿特区白宫椭圆形办公室中，时任英国驻美大使的彼得·曼德尔森与特朗普总统、副总统JD·万斯同框。安娜·莫尼梅克/盖蒂图片社
基尔·斯塔默知晓多少？何时知晓？
曼德尔森丑闻的最新发酵围绕着首相知晓或理应知晓的信息展开。该丑闻在2月首次曝光后，就已有议员呼吁斯塔默辞职。此次焦点是2025年1月的政府安全审查，该审查显然认为这位爱泼斯坦的同伙并不适合担任大使一职。
斯塔默在2025年9月解雇了曼德尔森——这位自20世纪90年代以来就是斯塔默所在工党核心成员的人物——此前华盛顿方面公布的臭名昭著的文件披露了他与爱泼斯坦深厚友谊的细节。
2月，伦敦大都会警方逮捕了曼德尔森，原因是爱泼斯坦文件中的电子邮件显示，他曾向这位当时已承认向未成年人提供性服务的美国人分享敏感机密市场信息。
曼德尔森仍在接受调查，但保释条件已被解除。他此前否认知晓或参与爱泼斯坦的性犯罪行为。
斯塔默始终坚称，在任命曼德尔森担任大使时，他并不知晓对方与爱泼斯坦的密切关系。
周一，在议会面临一连串质询时，首相将责任归咎于英国外交部，称其未在2025年1月的正式安全审查期间，将有关曼德尔森的担忧告知他或他的内阁。斯塔默是在数月前宣布这一外交人事任命的。
2025年12月19日，美国司法部在华盛顿特区公布了一批针对爱泼斯坦的调查档案，其中一张未标注日期的照片显示，彼得·曼德尔森（左）与已故金融家、已定罪性罪犯杰弗里·爱泼斯坦一同吹生日蛋糕蜡烛。美国司法部
斯塔默在为自己的判断失误道歉时称，外交部官员竟未告知他曼德尔森的过往，这“着实令人震惊”。他还表示，如果当时知晓相关担忧，他会撤销这一任命。
上周，斯塔默解雇了奥利·罗宾斯爵士，后者在曼德尔森的任命和审查期间担任外交部最高级公务员。
但在周一混乱的议会会议中，斯塔默遭到了除本党之外所有党派议员的围攻，左右两派议员都指责他要么在撒谎，要么因未能获取相关信息而能力不足。
两名议员因直接指责斯塔默撒谎而被驱逐出议会厅，这违反了下议院规则。
2025年2月，英国首相基尔·斯塔默（右）与彼得·曼德尔森在华盛顿同框。卡尔·考特/泳池/美联社
“那家伙连躺在床上撒谎都不会，”极右翼改革党议员李·安德森嘲讽道。
扎拉·苏尔塔纳曾是工党议员，2024年退党加入新的极左翼政党，她指责斯塔默“在误导全国民众”，并在议会厅内表示：“我们来看看这到底是什么；首相就是个厚颜无耻的骗子，如果他还有丝毫廉耻，就应该辞职。”
被解雇的公务员称存在“施压氛围”
刚刚被解雇的罗宾斯并未坐以待毙。
周二在众议院外交事务委员会接受议员质询时，他表示斯塔默的办公室存在“施压氛围”。
他称，当时有“非常、非常强烈的预期”，要求曼德尔森“尽快到任美国”，斯塔默和他的内阁对安全审查“普遍持不屑态度”。
他补充道，在审查结束后，他所领导的机构“倾向于建议拒绝授予曼德尔森安全许可”——而大使职位必须具备安全许可，但他表示对曼德尔森的担忧与他和爱泼斯坦的关系无关。他拒绝透露具体担忧内容。
今年早些时候，斯塔默成功躲过了此前要求他辞职的呼声，其中包括来自其党内的声音。
但在5月地方选举前夕的民调中，工党支持率并不乐观，因此反对党要求斯塔默为曼德尔森的任命承担责任，并要求其政党在选举中付出代价的呼声可能只会越来越高。
Trump predicts U.K.’s Starmer can “recover” from scandal over Epstein-linked ex-ambassador Peter Mandelson
April 21, 2026 / 12:21 PM EDT / CBS News
London— British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is once again mired in a scandal over his decision to appoint a former friend of Jeffrey Epstein as the U.K.’s ambassador in Washington. Despite disparaging Starmer repeatedly in recent weeks over his stance on the Iran war, President Trump weighed in to offer some much needed — if slightly tepid — support on Monday evening.
Some members of Britain’s parliament are demanding that Starmer resign amid new revelations about the government vetting process for Peter Mandelson, who has a long history of close ties with the late American financier and convicted sex offender.
“Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom acknowledged that he ‘exercised wrong judgement’ when he chose his Ambassador to Washington. I agree, he was a really bad pick,” Mr. Trump wrote after Starmer apologized again to Epstein’s victims and the British public on Monday for his decision.
“Plenty of time to recover, however!” added Mr. Trump.
President Trump and Vice President JD Vance are seen with Peter Mandelson, then-British Ambassador to the United States, in the Oval Office at the White House, May 8, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Anna Moneymaker/Getty
What did Keir Starmer know and when?
The latest manifestation of the Mandelson scandal — which drew calls for Starmer to resign based on previous revelations in February — centers on what the prime minister knew, or should have known, about a government security vetting that apparently deemed the Epstein associate a poor choice for the ambassadorship.
Starmer fired Mandelson— a mainstay of Starmer’s own Labour Party since the 1990s — from his job as the British ambassador to the U.S. in September, soon after details of the depth of his friendship with Epstein emerged in the infamous files released in Washington.
In February, London’s Metropolitan police arrested Mandelson after emails among the Epstein files appeared to show he had shared confidential, market-sensitive information with the American — who had by that point pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from a minor.
Mandelson remains under investigation, but his bail conditions have been lifted. He has previously denied any knowledge of or complicity in Epstein’s sexual crimes.
Starmer has always insisted he was unaware of Mandelson’s close ties to Epstein when he tapped him for the ambassadorship.
On Monday, facing a barrage of questions in parliament, the prime minister blamed Britain’s Foreign Office for not flagging to him or his cabinet concerns raised about Mandelson during a formal security vetting carried out in January 2025, several months after Starmer announced his appointment for the diplomatic role.
Peter Mandelson (left) is seen with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as he blows out the candles on a cake, in an undated photograph released by the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 19, 2025, as part of a trove of documents from its investigations into Epstein. U.S. Department of Justice
While apologizing for an error of judgment, Starmer called it “frankly staggering” that Foreign Office officials didn’t inform him of Mandelson’s history, and he said he would have rescinded the appointment had he been aware of the concerns.
Last week, Starmer fired Sir Olly Robbins, who was the Foreign Office’s most senior civil servant at the time of Mandelson’s appointment and vetting.
But during Monday’s rowdy parliamentary session, Starmer was hounded by lawmakers from every party but his own, left and right, claiming he was either lying about what he knew, or guilty of ineptitude for not obtaining the information.
Two members of parliament (MPs) were kicked out of the chamber for flatly accusing him of lying, which is against the rules of the House of Commons.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, right, is seen with Peter Mandelson, February 2025, in Washington. Carl Court/Pool/AP
“That man couldn’t lie straight in bed,” quipped the far-right Reform party’s Lee Anderson.
Zarah Sultana, who was a Labour MP until she left the party in 2024 to join a new, far-left party, accused Starmer of “gaslighting the nation,” telling the chamber: “Let’s call this out for what it is; the Prime Minister is a bare-faced liar, and if he had any decency left, he would resign.”
Fired civil servant claims an “atmosphere of pressure”
Robbins, the recently-fired civil servant, wasn’t going down without a fight.
Facing questions from MPs over his role in the Mandelson appointment, he told the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday there was an “atmosphere of pressure” from Starmer’s office.
There was “a very, very strong expectation” that Mandelson “needed to be in post and in America as quickly as possible,” and Starmer and his cabinet had “a generally dismissive attitude” to the security vetting, Robbins said.
He added that after the vetting, the agency he ran had been “leaning toward recommending against” giving Mandelson security clearance, which is required for an ambassadorship, but said the concerns about him did not relate to his relationship with Epstein. He declined to say what the concerns were about.
Starmer managed to stave off the previous calls for his resignation earlier this year, including some from within his own party.
But Labour is not doing well in opinion polls ahead of local elections in May, so opposition parties’ demands for Starmer to be held accountable for the Mandelson appointment — and for his party to pay the price in votes — are only likely to mount.
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