Lord Peter Mandelson has written a letter to all the staff at the UK embassy in Washington DC following Sir Keir Starmer's decision to sack him.

The Foreign Office confirmed on Thursday that Lord Mandelson had been stripped of the position in the wake of fresh revelations about his relationship with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein .

The now former ambassador wrote to staff that he continues to "feel utterly awful about my association with Epstein", and said he has "no alternative to accepting the prime minister's decision".

Sir Keir Starmer is understood to have made the decision to remove Lord Mandelson from the post on Thursday morning after new emails revealed the Labour peer had sent messages of support to Epstein even as he faced jail for sex offences in 2008.

Our US

See Full Page