Sir Tony Blair met with Jeffrey Epstein in Downing Street while still prime minister, following lobbying by Lord Peter Mandelson, the BBC has confirmed.

A memo written by senior civil servant Matthew Rycroft, dated 14 May 2002, briefs Sir Tony about “super-rich” financial adviser Epstein ahead of a meeting scheduled at 17.00 GMT that day.

The meeting was six years before Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008.

A spokesperson for Sir Tony said: “As far as he can remember, Mr Blair met with him for less than 30 minutes in Downing Street in 2002, and discussed US and UK politics. He never met or engaged with him subsequently.”

He added: “This was, of course, long before his crimes were known of and his subsequent conviction.”

Emails seen by BBC News show Lord Mandelson pushed for the meeting, telling Sir Tony’s chief of staff Jonathan Powell that Epstein was “a friend of mine” who ex-US President Bill Clinton hoped to introduce to the PM.

The release of this and several related documents had previously been blocked by government officials due to concerns about the impact on UK-US relations.

The document has now been released by the National Archives under a Freedom of Information request, following the sacking of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador after fresh revelations about his friendship with the disgraced financier.

In the email to Powell – the current UK government’s national security adviser – Lord Mandelson refers to Epstein as “safe”.

The email on 7 May 2002 states: “Do you remember when Clinton saw TB [Tony Blair] he said he wanted to introduce his travelling friend, Jeffrey Epstein, to TB?

“This was frustrated – TB said at the time – in the office for reasons (he says) he was unclear about. I think TB would be interested in meeting Jeffrey, who is also a friend of mine, because Jeffrey is an active scientific catalyst/entrepreneur as well as someone who has his finger on the pulse of many worldwide markets and currencies.

“He is young and vibrant. He is safe (whatever that means) and Clinton is now doing a lot of travelling with him.”

The email continues: “I mentioned to TB that Jeffrey is in London next week and he said he would like to meet him.

“I have ascertained from Jeffrey that he is flexible – he could be here any time from Tuesday onwards to fit round the diary – but would obviously need to know reasonably quickly so as to re-schedule accordingly. Can you let me know?”

There are three separate handwritten notes on the print-out of the email, some of which are illegible, but one appears to read “do you want to do this… Because you wanted to see Clinton by yourself… I know very little more about him”.

At the time, Lord Mandelson was a backbench MP, having twice resigned from the cabinet, but still a force in Labour.

Clinton has acknowledged being a former associate of Epstein but said had no knowledge of his crimes.

Epstein was convicted in Florida for soliciting prostitution from a person under the age of 18 in 2008. He died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

The National Archive has also released a schedule headed Trade and Industry Meetings with Industry, which includes a memo published on 14 May 2002, briefing Sir Tony about Epstein ahead of a meeting schedule for 17.00 GMT that day.

The briefing, written by senior civil servant Matthew Rycroft is marked R, understood to mean restricted.

In the memo, Rycroft, who until March 2025 was the permanent secretary at the Home Office, wrote to Blair: “Jeffrey Epstein is seeing you at 5pm today.

“He is a financial adviser to the super-rich and a property developer. He is a friend of Bill Clinton and Peter Mandelson.”

Rycroft states: “The background on Epstein is that he is very rich and close to the Duke of York”.

He adds: “Peter says that Epstein now travels with Clinton and Clinton wants you to meet him.

“He thinks you would find worthwhile a conversation with him about a) science and b) international economic and monetary trends.”

The memo was also sent to Powell and Geoffrey Norris, one of Sir Tony’s special advisers.