British Prime Minister Keir Starmer axed London’s ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, on Thursday after newly revealed emails showed Mandelson lavishing praise on notorious late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein — including after he copped a plea on Florida child prostitution charges in 2008.

The dismissal of Mandelson, a longtime major Labour Party figure, comes days ahead of a closely-watched state visit to the UK by President Trump, whose administration has been dogged by its handling of the case of Epstein, who died while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges on Aug. 10, 2019.

Mandelson, 71, hailed Epstein as his “best pal”, told him “I think the world of you” and urged him to “fight for early release” even after the disgraced financier pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from a child. 

The damning emails were first reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday.

“In light of the additional information in emails written by Peter Mandelson, the prime minister has asked the foreign secretary to withdraw him as ambassador,” the UK Foreign Office said in a statement Thursday.

“The emails show that the depth and extent of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment.”

Mandelson, whose past posts in the British government include secretary of state for Northern Ireland and and secretary of state for business, innovation and trade, had served as envoy to Washington since February.

In June 2008, while serving as the European Union’s commissioner for trade and economic security, Mandelson reached out to Epstein after the latter admitted to soliciting sex from a minor in order to avoid more serious trafficking charges.  

“I think the world of you, and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened,” Mandelson emailed Epstein at the time. “I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain.”

“You have to be incredibly resilient, fight for early release and be philosophical about it as much as you can,”  Mandelson went on. “The whole thing has been years of torture, and now you have to show the world how big a person you are, and how strong.”

“Your friends stay with you and love you.”

That email was sent just one day before Epstein reported to prison for his 18-month sentence, of which he ultimately served 13 — much of that time on work release.

The Bloomberg exposé revealed that Mandelson and Epstein exchanged more than 100 emails between 2005 and 2010. 

In another jarring exchange from February 2008, Mandelson urged Epstein to deploy techniques from Sun Tzu’s “Art of War”

“Reminder. You are fighting back so you need strategy, strategy, strategy. Remember the Art of War,” Mandelson wrote.

In addition to the emails, Mandelson wrote a flattering 10-page message to Epstein for his 50th birthday book that was stitched together in 2003 by the pervert’s convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

In that missive, the Brit called Epstein his “best pal.”

The book was made public by the House Oversight Committee earlier this week.

Mandelson has voiced regret about his ties to Epstein.

“I feel a tremendous sense of sympathy for those people, those women, who suffered as a result of his behaviour and his illegal criminal activities,” the former ambassador told the “Harry Cole Saves the West” podcast this week

“And, secondly, I regret very very deeply indeed carrying on that association with him for far longer than I should have done, and I regret very very much that I fell for his lies,” he continued. “I fell and accepted assurances that he had given me about his indictment, his original criminal case in Florida, like very many people, I took that at face value.”