We consider one-dimensional Mott variable-range hopping with a bias, and prove the linear response as well as the Einstein relation, under an assumption on the exponential moments of the distances between neighboring points. In a previous paper \cite{FGS} we gave conditions on ballisticity, and proved that in the ballistic case the environment viewed from the particle approaches, for almost any initial environment, a given steady state which is absolutely continuous with respect to the original law of the environment. Here, we show that this bias--dependent steady state has a derivative at zero in terms of the bias (linear response), and use this result to get the Einstein relation. Our approach is new: instead of using e.g. perturbation theory or regeneration times, we show that the Radon-Nikodym derivative of the bias--dependent steady state with respect to the equilibrium state in the unbiased case satisfies an $L^p$-bound, $p>2$, uniformly for small bias. This $L^p$-bound yields, by a general argument not involving our specific model, the statement about the linear response.