Appointing Lord Mandelson as the UK's ambassador to the US was "worth the risk", a minister has told Sky News.

Peter Kyle said the government put the Labour peer forward for the Washington role, despite knowing he had a "strong relationship" with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

It is this relationship that led to Peter Mandelson being fired on Thursday by the prime minister.

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Image: Lord Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein. File pic

But explaining the decision to appoint Lord Mandelson, Business Secretary Mr Kyle said: "The risk of appointing [him] knowing what was already public was worth the risk.

"Now, of course, we've seen the emails which were not published at the time, were not public and not even known about. And that has changed this situat

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