Tony Blair met with Jeffrey Epstein at Downing Street during his time as prime minister

Sir Tony Blair has been forced to admit he met Jeffrey Epstein

A memo, which was written by a senior civil servant back in 2002, briefed Sir Tony about ‘super-rich’ financial adviser Epstein ahead of a meeting on May 14 of that year.

The meeting took place six years before Epstein admitted 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.

"This was, of course, long before his crimes were known of and his subsequent conviction."

Emails reviewed by BBC News reveal that Lord Mandelson advocated for the meeting, informing Sir Tony’s chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, that Epstein was “a friend of mine” whom former US President Bill Clinton wished to introduce to the Prime Minister.

The release of several related documents had previously been blocked by government officials due to the negative impact it could have on UK-US relations.

The document has now been released by the National Archives under a Freedom of Information request. It follows the sacking of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador after recent revelations about his friendship with the convicted sex offender.

Lord Mandelson refers to Epstein as "safe" in the email sent to Powell, the current UK government's national security adviser.

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

"This was frustrating - 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 reschedule accordingly. Can you let me know?"

On the print-out of the email, there are three separate handwritten notes, some of which are illegible, however, 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 who had previously resigned from the cabinet twice, but was still a force in Labour, per the BBC.

Clinton has previously acknowledged being a former associate of Epstein but claims to have not known of his crimes.