Keir Starmer has said Andrew Mounbatten-Windsor should testify before the US Congress about his links to the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The prime minister, who is in Japan for a meeting with its premier, Sanae Takaichi, was asked by journalists if the former prince should apologise to the disgraced financier’s victims and give evidence about what he knew about his crimes.
Mounbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his titles last year amid the fallout from his friendship with the billionaire, features heavily in the latest tranche of Epstein files, released on Friday by the US justice department.
The king’s brother appears to be pictured crouching over a woman who is lying on the floor. The cache of documents also includes emails which indicate Mountbatten-Windsor invited Epstein to Buckingham Palace in September 2010, two years after he was convicted of soliciting girls as young as 14 for sex.
Last year Suhas Subramanyam, a Democratic member of the oversight committee in the House of Representatives, asked Mountbatten-Windsor to sit for a deposition as part of its investigation into how the US government handled the case against Epstein.
Subramanyam said Mountbatten-Windsor “has been hiding from us, and I think he will continue to try to hide from people doing meaningful investigations of this matter”.
Speaking after the release of the latest Epstein files, Starmer said: “Firstly, I have always approached this question with the victims of Epstein in mind. Epstein’s victims have to be the first priority. As for whether there should be an apology, that’s a matter for Andrew.
“But yes, in terms of testifying, I have always said anybody who has got information should be prepared to share that information in whatever form they are asked to do that. You can’t be victim-centred if you’re not prepared to do that.”
The documents suggest that, a month before the Buckingham Palace invite, Epstein had suggested he could arrange for Mountbatten-Windsor to have dinner with a “clever, beautiful and trustworthy” Russian woman, who was 26. Mountbatten-Windsor apparently responded that he would be “delighted” to see the woman. He also asked Epstein if it was “good to be free” from house arrest.
Mountbatten-Windsor and Epstein were pictured walking together in New York’s Central Park later that year. In his calamitous Newsnight interview, broadcast in 2019, Mountbatten-Windsor claimed he had travelled to the US to end his friendship with Epstein in person in light of his conviction.
However, the newly released emails suggest that the Hollywood publicist Peggy Siegal arranged a star-studded dinner in Mountbatten-Windsor’s honour at Epstein’s New York home during the trip. Siegal invited the film director Woody Allen and George Stephanopoulos, a talk show host and former senior aide to Bill Clinton.
Mountbatten-Windsor appears to have continued to send Epstein intimate family pictures featuring his adult daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
In 2022, Mounbatten-Windsor paid a reported £12m settlement to the late Virginia Giuffre, who claimed she had been forced to have sex with him after she was trafficked by Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, a close friend of the former prince. Mountbatten-Windsor made the payment without accepting liability and has always denied wrongdoing.
However, he and his former wife, Sarah Ferguson, have been ostracised from royal circles thanks to their decision to maintain friendships with Epstein after his first conviction. Epstein gave Ferguson £15,000 to pay off debts and she described him in an email as the “brother [she] always wished for”.
Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019, while awaiting trial on fresh child sex abuse charges. The files also detail apparent correspondence between Mountbatten-Windsor and Maxwell. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence in a US jail for child sex trafficking.
They feature an email from Mountbatten-Windsor to Maxwell, written in 2005, about a proposed trip to the US. Mountbatten-Windsor wrote: “I am in your hands (literally) until Saturday/Sunday.” He signed off: “Love you A xxx.”
The newly released documents contain a string of embarrassing revelations for prominent British figures. They show that Epstein sent £10,000 to Reinaldo Avila da Silva, the husband of Labour peer Peter Mandelson, in the year after his conviction. Emails suggest this was to fund an osteopathy course.
They also reveal that Lord Mandelson requested to stay at one of Epstein’s properties while Epstein was serving his first jail term. The terms of Epstein’s sentence allowed him to work from his office during the day and return to jail each night.
Mandelson said on Friday he had been “wrong” to continue his association with Epstein after his conviction. He added that he was “never culpable or complicit” in his crimes. He was sacked as the UK’s ambassador to the US last September when it emerged he had sent supportive messages to Epstein after his offending had come to light.
A photo of Richard Branson and Jeffrey Epstein released as part of the Epstein files. Photograph: US Department of Justice/PA
The files show that Richard Branson met Epstein in 2013, at the Virgin Group founder’s private Necker Island, and offered him advice on restoring his reputation in light of his 2008 conviction.
In an email, Branson told Epstein: “Any time you’re in the area, would love to see you. As long as you bring your harem!”
“I think if Bill Gates was willing to say that you’ve been a brilliant advisor to him, that you slipped up many years ago by sleeping with a 17½-year-old woman and were punished for it,” Branson wrote.
“You’ve more than learnt your lesson and have done nothing that’s against the law since and, yes, as a single man, you seem to have a penchant for women. But there’s nothing wrong with that.”
A Virgin Group spokesperson said: “Any contact Richard and Joan Branson had with Epstein took place on only a few occasions more than 12 years ago, and was limited to group or business settings, such as a charity tennis event.
“When Epstein offered a charity donation, the Bransons asked their team to carry out due diligence before accepting the donation, which uncovered serious allegations.
“As a result of what the due diligence uncovered, Virgin Unite did not take the donation and Richard and Joan decided not to meet or speak with Epstein again.
“Had they had the full picture and information, there would have been no contact whatsoever. Richard believes that Epstein’s actions were abhorrent and supports the right to justice for his many victims.”
