This is The Guardian.

I am sorry.

Sorry for having believed Mandelson's lies.

But what he didn't crucially say was that he was sorry for appointing Mandelson,

despite knowing that there were links between Mandelson and Epstein.

Not an insignificant moment.

There is a real weakening of his position.

Kirstama is facing one of the worst weeks of his premiership so far,

apologising to victims of Geoffrey Epstein as he tries to weather

the Peter Mandelson scandal. Can the Prime Minister survive? From the Guardians today in focus,

this is the latest with me, Lucy Hoff. Joining me is Lexi Topping, Guardian political correspondent.

So, I mean, it's been a torrid week for Kirstama, the Prime Minister, arguably the most challenging of his premiership so far.

He is facing serious questions from within his own party after that admission in the Commons yesterday

that he knew about the relationship between Peter

Mandelson, the former US ambassador and the child sex offender, Geoffrey Epstein. He has apologised

today in a prearranged speech in Hastings, but he used the first part of that speech to make this

apology. What did he say? What was the tone? It was interesting actually because

Stama was in Hastings to promote this big government push for high streets called Pride in Place.

It's something the government really cares about and they were really hoping to get back on the

front foot on the kind of domestic agenda. But he went straight into tackling the questions about Mandelson.

And frankly, he couldn't have done anything else after a really torrid day in the comments for him yesterday.

He took it straight on.

...