Peter Mandelson, the U.K. ambassador to Washington, was removed from his post Thursday after a trove of emails showed he continued to offer support to Jeffrey Epstein long after the disgraced financier was jailed for sex offenses.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer asked Mandelson to step down in light of the emails, published this week by the Sun, a British newspaper, showing the ambassador’s relations with Epstein were “materially different from that known at the time of his appointment,” the U.K. Foreign Office said in a statement.