Peter Mandelson declined to apologise to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims for remaining friends with the paedophile financier after his conviction but said he was sorry for “a system” that meant Epstein’s victims were ignored.

The Labour peer, who was sacked as US ambassador when details of his support for Epstein emerged in September, gave an interview to the BBC on Sunday, saying he had paid a “calamitous” price for his association with the “evil monster”.

Lord Mandelson’s association with Epstein had long been known when Keir Starmer appointed the peer as US ambassador. However, he was removed from his diplomatic post after No 10 said it had been unaware of about emails from Mandelson to Epstein suggesting the financier’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a child for prostitution was wrongful and should be challenged.

Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 and served time in jail but Mandelson said he had believed his excuses and continued to support him out of “misplaced loyalty” and “a most terrible mistake on my part”.

In his interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, the peer sought to distance himself from Epstein, saying he was “at the edge of this man’s life”, despite “toe-curlingly embarassing” emails showing his support and a birthday message describing him as a best pal.

The interview is Mandelson’s first broadcast appearance since being sacked from his diplomatic role in Washington in September last year.

Mandelson said: “I never saw anything in his life when I was with him, when I was in his homes, that would give me any reason to suspect what this evil monster was doing in preying on these young women.”

He added: “I think the issue is that because I was a gay man in his circle, I was kept separate from what he was doing in the sexual side of his life.”

Asked whether he wanted to apologise, Lord Mandelson said: “I want to apologise to those women for a system that refused to hear their voices and did not give them the protection they were entitled to expect.”

Pressed on whether he would apologise for his friendship with Epstein after his conviction, the peer and former business secretary said: “If I had known, if I was in any way complicit or culpable, of course I would apologise … but I was not culpable, I was not knowledgeable for what he was doing, and I regret, and will regret to my dying day, the fact that powerless women were not given the protection they were entitled to expect.”

Asked if he deserved to be sacked, he said: “I understand why I was sacked.”

He added: “I understand why [Starmer] took the decision he did. But one thing I’m very clear about is I’m not going to seek to reopen or relitigate this issue. I’m moving on.”

In one of the emails released in September, Mandelson wrote to Epstein after his conviction saying: “I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened. 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.”

It continued: “Everything can be turned into an opportunity and that you will come through it and be stronger for it.”

The friendship between the two men came under a renewed spotlight after Democratic members of the US house oversight committee released Epstein’s 50th “birthday book”, in which Mandelson called him “my best pal” in a handwritten note.