By Editor,Jason Groves

Copyright dailymail

Downing Street ignored warnings about Peter Mandelson’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein when it appointed him as ambassador to Washington, it emerged last night.

The senior Labour peer Maurice Glasman privately warned Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney against the appointment in January, describing Lord Mandelson as ‘the wrong man at the wrong time in the wrong place’.

One Whitehall source last night claimed senior figures in the Foreign Office had also ‘advised against the appointment’ of a politician who was twice forced to resign from Cabinet over previous scandals.

Sir Keir was left squirming yesterday as he tried to defend his decision to appoint the man who described Epstein as ‘my best pal’ to the top diplomatic role. Last night, Labour MPs joined Tory calls for Lord Mandelson to be sacked ahead of President Trump’s state visit next week.

Sir Keir yesterday insisted that ‘due process’ had been followed in the run-up to Lord Mandelson’s appointment to Washington in February. Downing Street said the former cabinet minister had been subject ‘to extensive vetting and background checks’ to ensure he was not a security risk.

But last night it emerged that No 10 ignored a last-ditch warning from Lord Glasman, who was the only Labour figure invited to President Trump’s inauguration on January 20. Mr McSweeney is a devotee of the Blue Labour movement founded by Lord Glasman and asked him to write a report on his reflections on the relationship with the US and its new President.

In a memo written on the evening of the inauguration, Lord Glasman warned that appointing Lord Mandelson risked ‘provoking’ senior Republicans who already had grave reservations about the Labour government.

He said several Republicans had showed him a now notorious photograph of Lord Mandelson with Epstein as he blew out the candles on a birthday cake.

In the memo, a copy of which was seen by the Mail, he told Mr McSweeney: ‘The brutal truth is that the vast majority of people I met… consider our Labour Government to be a front organisation for paedophiles and Pakistani rape gangs.

‘They consider our position on the Chagos Islands an example of progressive idiocy and our appointment of Peter Mandelson an unnecessary provocation. They think our Army has gone to hell and our country is overwhelmed by legal and illegal migrants.’

He added: ‘Withdraw Peter Mandelson. He is the wrong man at the wrong time in the wrong place.’

Lord Mandelson was appointed less than three weeks later.

Labour MPs sat in silence yesterday as Kemi Badenoch savaged Sir Keir’s decision during the weekly session of Prime Minister’s Questions in the Commons.

Sir Keir said Epstein’s victims ‘are at the forefront of our minds’, but added: ‘The ambassador has repeatedly expressed his deep regret for his association with Epstein. I have confidence in him, and he is playing an important role in the UK-US relationship.’

â–  A Secret memo in which Lord Mandelson urged then-prime minister Sir Tony Blair to meet Jeffrey Epstein has been kept under wraps, it is claimed.

The note, believed to have been written in May 2002 supposedly advised Sir Tony that a meeting would be ‘safe’ and useful given Epstein’s network of business contacts. Aides passed it to the prime minister. It is not known if a meeting took place.

The document and a civil service summary were due to be released this year by the National Archives. However, The Times reported, an exemption was applied on the grounds that disclosure could harm UK international relations, particularly with the US.