Cabinet ministers have pledged their support for Keir Starmer as the prime minister fights for his political survival.
In a clearly co-cordinated operation, a succession of senior government ministers took to social media to make clear they do not want the PM to resign.
The UK’s former ambassador to Washington is facing a police investigation over allegations he passed market sensitive information to the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein when he was business secretary between 2008 and 2010.
Sarwar said: “The distraction needs to end and the leadership in Downing Street has to change.”
The incendiary move led to speculation that cabinet ministers could resign in order to force the PM out.
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But one after another, they posted messages on X making clear they believe he should stay in his post.
Rebuilding Britain takes time. But thanks to the decisions we’ve made NHS waiting lists are falling. Inflation is falling. Interest rates are falling. The conditions for the economy to grow are there.
With Keir as our Prime Minister we are turning the country around.
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I respect @anassarwar but he is wrong. Keir led our party to a General Election victory 18 months ago and he is the right person for the job in difficult circumstances. The public want us to fix the country’s problems, not fixate on ourselves.
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I respect @anassarwar but he is wrong. Keir led our party to a General Election victory 18 months ago and he is the right person for the job in difficult circumstances. The public want us to fix the country’s problems, not fixate on ourselves.
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Keir turned around the Labour Party after one of our worst defeats in 2019. He won a huge mandate at the last general election and is leading a government that is delivering on our promise of change to the British public. Nothing should distract from that.
— Emma Reynolds for Wycombe 🌹 (@EmmaforWycombe) February 9, 2026
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Keir Starmer is a good, decent man with public service running through his veins. He came into politics for all the right reasons. He’s defied the naysayers many time and he’ll do so again. He’s changing and renewing our country and has restored it’s reputation across the world.
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Angela Rayner, who was forced to resign as deputy PM last year and is seen as a frontrunner to replace Starmer if he goes, also called on Labour MPs to back him.
I urge all my colleagues to come together, remember our values and put them into practice as a team. The Prime Minister has my full support in leading us to that end. 3/3
Keir Starmer has spent his career serving our country. Being the Prime Minister is the hardest job in politics – there are no easy days but our country needs stability.
Integrity, duty and resilience are the foundations of serious leadership.
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Keir Starmer has spent his career serving our country. Being the Prime Minister is the hardest job in politics – there are no easy days but our country needs stability.
Integrity, duty and resilience are the foundations of serious leadership.
Keir Starmer’s premiership is hanging by a thread this weekend as new details about Peter Mandelson’s friendship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein continue to drip into the public consciousness.
When the prime minister sackedMandelson as the UK’s ambassador to Washington over his Epstein ties in September, he must have hoped the scandal was dealt with. The events of the past week show how wrong he was.
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The latest chapter in the saga was triggered by the US Department of Justice publishing more than three million documents on the late sex offender and his connections to the rich and powerful.
The files revealed that Mandelson was even more entwined with the disgraced financier than previously assumed – putting Starmer’s judgement in appointing him to the plum diplomatic role into sharp focus.
Amid mounting anger from the public and his own MPs, the prime minister ended up apologising on Thursday for ever believing Mandelson’s “lies”.
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Here’s a breakdown of how we got to this point – and what might happen next.
Who Is Peter Mandelson?
Mandelson has been in Labour circles for decades, often referred to as the “Prince of Darkness” because of his ruthless nature, capacity for scandals and love of political intrigue.
He worked as the director of communications to then-party leader Neil Kinnock in the 1980s before being elected as the Labour MP for Hartlepool in 1992.
A key architect of the New Labour project, he helped Tony Blair win the party leadership in 1994 and ran Labour’s successful general election campaign in 1997.
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Blair rewarded Mandelson with the post of minister without portfolio, a roving commission which gave him enormous power over the government machine.
However, the personal frailties – and the attraction to money – which would later bring about his downfall led to his resignation after barely a year when he failed to declare a loan from a cabinet colleague whose business dealings Mandelson’s own department was investigating.
After a year on the backbenches licking his wounds, Blair brought him back into the cabinet as Northern Ireland secretary the following year, at the time a key role as the peace process faltered.
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But once again, barely a year later, Mandelson was forced to resign, this time for lying about his role in brokering a British passport for a wealthy donor to the Millennium Dome project.
After famously declaring he was “a fighter, not a quitter” when retaining his Hartlepool seat in 2001, Mandelson stood down as an MP in 2004 to become a European trade commissioner, a post he held until he made another dramatic political comeback in 2008.
Gordon Brown, who had succeeded Blair the previous year, stunned Westminster by making Mandelson – his New Labour nemesis – a life peer and appointing him business secretary and de facto deputy prime minister.
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He finally left frontline politics, apparently for good, when Labour lost the 2010 general election.
Ex-Prime Minister and Labour Party leader, Gordon Brown, right, and then-Business Secretary Peter Mandelson react as they speak to the media about economy in a press conference in London, Monday, April 19, 2010.
via Associated Press
How Did Mandelson Come Back Into Government?
Despite his complete lack of diplomatic experience, Mandelson was appointed the UK’s ambassador to Washington a year ago.
He quickly established a rapport with President Donald Trump and was a key figure in negotiations on a UK/US trade deal and technology partnership.
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Mandelson also helped to smooth over American concerns around the UK government’s decision to hand sovereignty over the strategically-important Chagos Islands to Mauritius.
His return to the heart of British politics was seen as a reward for his years of behind-the-scenes work with Morgan McSweeney – now Starmer’s chief of staff – to help return Labour to government.
McSweeney is known to have pushed the PM to give Mandelson the ambassador’s role, a judgement call which has intensified calls from Labour MPs for him to be sacked.
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What Was Mandelson’s Relationship To Epstein?
The nature of their friendship has come out in drips and drabs over the years. Here’s a breakdown of what is currently public knowledge – and when it was first revealed.
The report was commissioned to shed light on JPMorgan’s 15-year relationship with Epstein and refers to a range of meetings between the disgraced financier and Mandelson.
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The dossier also found Mandelson had stayed at Epstein’s lavish townhouse in Manhatten when he was the UK’s business secretary while the convicted criminal was in prison for soliciting underage sex from a minor.
In this image provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry, Jeffrey Epstein has his photo taken March 28, 2017.
via Associated Press
February 2025
Mandelson was appointed as US ambassador in February last year, after going through routine due diligence and security vetting.
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When asked about his Epstein connection by the Financial Times’ George Parker during an extensive interview, the former Labour cabinet minister said: “I regret ever meeting him or being introduced to him by his partner Ghislaine Maxwell.”
Maxwell is currently in prison for recruiting and trafficking underaged girls for the financier.
Mandelson added: “I regret even more the hurt he caused to many young women.”
However, according to the FT report, “an icy chill” then descended during their conversation on the train, and Mandelson added: “I’m not going to go into this. It’s an FT obsession and frankly you can all fuck off. OK?”
When later asked about Mandelson’s language, the prime minister’s spokesperson told reporters: “The prime minister has made clear the expertise and the experience Lord Mandelson has in relation to becoming ambassador to the US.”
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September 2025
The seeds of Mandelson’s political demise were sown last autumn, when US lawmakers released a tranche of documemts relating to Epstein.
They included a “birthday book” which contained a message from Mandelson in which he described Epstein as his “best pal”.
But it was a further revelation, that Mandelson told Epstein in an email that “your friends stay with you and love you” even as he was facing child underage sex charges in 2008, that proved to be the final straw.
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Despite telling MPs that he had “confidence” in his ambassador, Starmer eventually sacked Mandelson, just seven months after appointing him.
“The emails show that the depth and extent of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment,” the Foreign Office said.
President Donald Trump, left and former UK ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson, in the Oval Office.
via Associated Press
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January 2026
Despite being sacked in disgrace, Mandelson appeared poised to make another remarkable comeback thanks to a series of high-profile media appearances at the start of this year.
They included an interview on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s flagship political programme.
However, he caused outrage when he failed to apologise to Epstein’s victims, saying only that he was sorry “for a system” which did not listen to victims’ voices.
After an angry backlash, Mandelson rowed back the following day, saying: “I did not want to be held responsible for his [Epstein’s] crimes of which I was ignorant, not indifferent, because of the lies he told me and so many others.
“I was wrong to believe him following his conviction and to continue my association with him afterwards. I apologise unequivocally for doing so to the women and girls who suffered.”
February 2026
A new tranche of documents from the US’s Department of Justice (DoJ) came out at the start of February and finally sealed Mandelson’s fate.
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They appeared to show he had accepted $75,000 from the disgraced financier between 2003 and 2004, though Mandelson has said he has no recollection of receiving those payments and did not know if the documents were genuine.
But amid mounting public anger, he announced he was quitting the Labour Party to avoid “further embarrassment” last Sunday.
The scandal has only intensified since then, with Mandelson now facing a criminal investigation over allegations he passed market sensitive information to Epstein when he was business secretary and the government was dealing with the aftermath of the global financial crash.
Other emails show Mandelson and Epstein sharing crude jokes when the latter was released from prison – an occasion described as “Liberation Day” by the peer.
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Mandelson announced last Tuesday that he was quitting the House of Lords, although it will require a special law to be passed to formally remove his title.
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In a self-pitying interview with The Times carried out before the latest revelations, he tried to portray himself as a victim over his sacking as US ambassador.
“It was like a 5.30am drive-by shooting,” he said. “I was at the edge of something. Suddenly, I was put at the centre of it — as a result of historical emails of which I have no memory and no record.”
Suggesting he still had a contribution to make to British politics, he said: “Hiding under a rock would be a disproportionate response to a handful of misguided historical emails, which I deeply regret sending.
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“If it hadn’t been for the emails, I’d still be in Washington. Emails sent all those years ago didn’t change the relationship that I had with this monster.
“I feel the same about the recent download of Epstein files, none of which indicate wrongdoing or misdemeanour on my part.”
What Happens Next?
After a Labour rebellion, the government has agreed to publish all documents relating Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador.
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It’s thought there could be close to 100,000 government files related to the former Labour peer.
The police inquiry into Mandelson is also likely to continue for months, if not years, drawing out the political pain for Starmer and his government.
Scotland Yard confirmed on Friday they are searching two properties in their investigation, but Mandelson has not been “arrested and enquiries are ongoing”.
What Does This Mean For Starmer?
Questions about Starmer’s judgment – which was already in doubt after a slew of government U-turns – have only intensified over the Mandelson scandal.
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While the PM says he was lied to by Mandelson, his critics say the warning signs were already there long before the decision was taken to send him to Washington.
Harriet Harman, for the former Labour deputy leader and a party loyalist, told the Electoral Dysfunction podcast: “He’s got to stop blaming Mandelson and saying ‘he lied to me’ because actually he should never have been considering him in the first place.
“And to say ‘he lied to me’ makes it look weak and naive and gullible. So it’s just completely the wrong thing.”
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She added: “If he doesn’t take the path which is necessary, yes, this will finish him off and that will be a tragedy for the government, a tragedy for the country and tragedy for Keir Starmer.”
Mutinous Labour MPs believe Morgan McSweeney’s sacking is a necessary first step in repairing the huge political damage caused by the Mandelson scandal.
However, questions about Starmer’s own future continue to swirl, and are only likely to intensify in the days ahead.
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One MP told HuffPost UK: “Taking refuge in constituency stuff this weekend seems appealing.
“But trying to pretend it’s all a bad dream for a few days won’t work, as constituents will be taking the chance to make very clear how they feel about Starmer and Mandelson and that’ll end up feeding into things back in parliament next week.”
While his rivals sharpen their knives, Starmer tried to win back public favour by issuing a frank apology on Thursday, telling Epstein’s victims he’s “sorry” for ever believing Mandelson.
Will it be enough to save him, or is this scandal going to bring him down?
A growing list of Labour backbenchers are speaking out against Keir Starmer over the Peter Mandelson scandal – while some are turning on each other.
The prime minister apologised for believing the ex-Labour peer’s “lies” over his relationship with dead paedophile Jeffrey Epstein on Thursday in an attempt to win back public favour.
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But scrutiny over his decision to appoint Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to Washington continues to grow, especially as their friendship was public knowledge even before Starmer gave him the plum job.
Labour MPs began the week by privately slamming the prime minister but now – after Starmer still insisted he had no reason to believe Mandelson had misled him over his Epstein ties until US lawmakers released new files on the convicted sex offender – a growing number of those on the left of the party are going on the record with their criticisms.
Paula Barker told the BBC she was “deeply ashamed” of the government’s initial attempts to block the release of documents surrounding Mandelson’s appointment.
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However, she said “there’s nobody who I would be prepared to back at this stage” to replace him.
Simon Opher also told the New Statesman that Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney – a close ally to Mandelson – “needs to go”, blaming the “poor decision-making of those around the prime minister” for the current crisis.
Bell Ribeiro-Addy told ITV News that appointing Mandelson was an “unforgivable betrayed of our stance on violence against women and girls”.
Others, like Neil Duncan-Jordan, went further, calling for the “Number 10 operation in its entirety” to change.
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Similarly, Kim Johnson said: “If this is their idea of leadership, No.10 needs gutting from top to bottom.”
Jo White, leader of Labour’s Red Wall group, said on X: “The only way through this is an ethical reset at the heart of government. ”
And former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell warned: “This could bring this government down.
“It could certainly bring Keir Starmer down and this whole team around him, that’s the seriousness of it.”
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Rachael Maskell, a known Labour rebel, said on Thursday: “We need to now move forward as a party to ensure that we can gain that support back.
“I don’t believe we can with the PM in place – it is inevitable that the PM is going to have to step down.”
But Loyalist MP Luke Akehurst played down the impact of these statements, saying: “I’m not sure Morgan McSweeney should lose much sleep over this small collection of my PLP colleagues, all policy rebels on various issues, calling for his departure.
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“The same names repeatedly take the opportunity to share their hot takes with the media.”
This sparked further disquiet within the party as fellow MP and government critic Karl Turner hit back.
Replying on X, he said: “I don’t think McSweeney will give a monkeys, Luke. But our PM should. And so should you. We aren’t some sort of fast food franchise. We are the Labour Party.
“Getting clever like this about those of us that have got the bottle to speak says more about you than it does about me.”
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Meanwhile, a Labour source was exasperated to see the chaos erupting within the party, telling HuffPost UK: “Why are they publicly fighting? What’s wrong with them all?”
The UK government announced last year that it was going to pay Mauritius £9 billion over the next 99 years so the UK-US military base at Diego Garcia will continue to operate as it does at the moment.
At the height of his row with Europe over control of Greenland last month, the US president accused the UK of giving away the site of “vital US military base” for “NO REASON WHATSOEVER” – despite appearing to be content with the deal at the end of 2025.
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But, after a phone call with the prime minister on Thursday, Trump U-turned again, and now seems much more at ease with the plan.
In a post on TruthSocial, he wrote: “I understand that the deal prime minister Starmer has made, according to many, the best he could make.
“However, if the lease deal, sometime in the future, ever falls apart of anyone threatens or endangers US operations and forces at our base, I retain the right to militarily secure and reinforce the American presence in Diego Garcia.
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“Let it be known that I will never allow our presence on a base as important as this to ever be undermined or threatened by fake claims or environmental nonsense.
“Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
The prime minister reportedly spoke to Trump about the “importance of the deal to secure the joint UK-US base on Diego Garcia, which remains vital to shared security interests”.
The two leaders agreed that the UK and US “will continue to work closely on the implementation of the deal”, according to Downing Street’s readout of the call.
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No.10 will be breathing a huge sigh of relief at the president’s latest change of heart, considering Trump had condemned Starmer’s decision to give up the islands as “an act of great stupidity” in January.
The president said: “There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness.”
He added: “The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired. Denmark and its European Allies have to DO THE RIGHT THING.”
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The outburst stunned the Westminster at the time and there were concerns about the future of the so-called “special relationship” between the US and UK.
But, unlike the European Union, Starmer ruled out imposing retaliatory tariffs on America, even if Trump went ahead with his threat to slap 10% import charges on British goods from February 1.
And, once Trump had supposedly worked up a “framework of a future deal” with Nato over Greenland, he dropped the tariff threat.
Keir Starmer threw himself on the mercy of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims today as he desperately tried to save his premiership.
The prime minister stared down the barrel of a TV camera and apologised to them for appointing Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to Washington, despite his known links to the convicted paedophile.
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“I am sorry,” he said. “Sorry for what was done to you. Sorry for having believing Mandelson’s lies and appointed him. And sorry that even now you are forced to watch this story unfold in public once again.”
But the prime minister’s audience was as much his own MPs as it was the women who were abused by Epstein.
They are the ones who hold his fate in their hands, and the bad news for Starmer is that, if anything, they are even angrier than they were yesterday.
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One veteran backbencher described the mood among his colleagues as “universally low”.
Another MP said: “Taking refuge in constituency stuff this weekend seems appealing.
“But trying to pretend it’s all a bad dream for a few days won’t work, as constituents will be taking the chance to make very clear how they feel about Starmer and Mandelson and that’ll end up feeding into things back in parliament next week.”
Starmer’s argument is that he was unaware of the extent of Lord Mandelson’s ongoing friendship with Epstein, and was lied to by the then Labour peer during the vetting process for the ambassadorial post.
“He portrayed Epstein as someone he barely knew,” the PM said. “And when that became clear and it was not true, I sacked him.”
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But that is failing to convince even his own ministers, with one telling HuffPost UK: “Everyone knows Peter was always going to be a high risk appointment and that’s the most disappointing thing.
“On balance the ‘is this worth the risk’ question should have been answered with a ‘no’.”
For a prime minister and former barrister, Starmer does seem to be remarkably incurious.
The full extent of Mandelson’s deep connections with Epstein were, of course, unknown until the latest tranche of documents on the billionaire financier were released last week by the US Department of Justice.
Details of him allegedly passing on market sensitive information in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crash has stunned Westminster and have put Mandelson at the heart of a criminal investigation.
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Nevertheless, there was enough evidence available long before Starmer made Mandelson his ambassador to show that he had maintained contact with Epstein after his conviction.
An internal report from 2019 by the JP Morgan bank containing emails between the pair was reported on by the Financial Times in 2023.
Photographs of the pair shopping in the Caribbean and blowing out candles on a birthday cake in Epstein’s Paris apartment were also widely in circulation.
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Given that, it is hard to understand how Starmer could have bought Mandelson’s line that the pair “barely knew” one another.
Labour MP Richard Burgon – no fan of Starmer’s, it must be said – remarked: “No minister should be giving the impression that Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein – even after his jailing – wasn’t known before Mandelson became ambassador. It was.”
Other MPs insist the moment of maximum danger for Starmer has passed, at least in the short term.
But the feeling remains that the PM is now just one mis-step away from a full-blown leadership crisis – and his rivals are preparing to strike.
Keir Starmer is fighting for his political life after the row over his decision to make Peter Mandelson the UK’s ambassador to Washington threatens to end his premiership.
The prime minister is facing mounting fury from Labour MPs after confirming that he knew about Mandelson’s ongoing friendship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein when he gave him the plum diplomatic job.
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Starmer made the shocking admission as he endured a torrid prime minister’s questions in the House of Commons.
A minister described Starmer’s performance as “disastrous”.
One Labour MP told HuffPost UK that watching Starmer was “like being present at the political death of the prime minister”.
“It’s made his position far, far worse,” the MP said. “I couldn’t believe some of his answers. We were aghast.”
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The MP added: “Labour MPs are in disbelief, to be honest. He came to PMQs and instead of handling it well and appropriately, totally misjudged the mood of MPs and the country.”
In a fresh humiliation for the PM, the government was also forced to U-turn over its plans to publish the behind-the-scenes communications which took place before Mandelson was made ambassador.
Downing Street had initially said that documents relating to national security and the UK’s relations with other countries would remain under wraps.
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However, after a major intervention by former deputy PM Angela Rayner, and with the government facing an embarrassing defeat in the Commons, No.10 agreed that MPs on the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) will be allowed to see those papers to decide whether they can be made public.
One MP said: “I’m relieved that we’ve got to a better place but why have we had to go through this?”
The developments left Starmer’s political authority severely damaged and led to veteran left-winger John McDonnell calling on him to think about quitting as PM.
He told ITV News: “I think he really needs to consider his position about how he goes forward on this because this is one of those issues which could not just bring down a prime minister, but bring down a government.
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“I think he should consider his track record, is he performing the role responsibly, and I think the responsibility is on his shoulders to think whether he’s doing the right thing by staying on.”
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Starmer’s leadership crisis has been triggered by the revelations about the extent of Mandelson’s links to Epstein, which emerged in documents released last weekend by the US Department of Justice.
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Mandelson, who was sacked as US ambassador just seven months after Starmer appointed him, is facing a criminal investigation over claims he passed market sensitive information to the billionaire financier when he was business secretary in Gordon Brown’s government.
If a week is a long time in politics, 14 months is a lifetime.
Back on December 20, 2024, Keir Starmer said he was “delighted” that Lord Peter Mandelson was going to be the UK’s next ambassador to Washington.
“The United States is one of our most important allies and as we move into a new chapter in our friendship, Peter will bring unrivalled experience to the role and take our partnership from strength to strength,” the prime minister gushed.
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Two months later, on February 26 last year, Starmer gently poked fun at Mandelson at a welcome reception hosted at the newly-installed ambassador’s plush residence.
“I’ve only just arrived but already I can feel there’s a real buzz around Washington right now,” said the PM. “You can sense that there’s a new leader. He’s a true one-off, a pioneer in business, in politics.
“Many people love him. Others love to hate him. But to us, he’s just … Peter.”
Less than 12 months on, however, and Starmer has performed what may well be his biggest U-turn yet.
Keir Starmer and his former US ambassador Peter Mandelson.
via Associated Press
In September last year, just hours after telling MPs he retained full confidence in him, Starmer sacked Mandelson over his links to the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
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Now, he has gone even further by demanding that that Mandelson – who resigned his Labour membership on Sunday night before the party could kick him out – should lose the peerage given to him by Gordon Brown in 2009.
“The prime minister believes that Peter Mandelson should not be a member of the House of Lords or use the title,” his spokesman said on Monday.
“We want to reform the House of Lords and that includes strengthening the circumstances in which disgraced members can be removed.”
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Of course, no one will shed any tears for Mandelson, who maintained contact with his “best pal” Epstein even after his conviction for soliciting a child for prostitution.
A fresh trove of documents released by the US Department of Justice over the weekend also suggest that the former business secretary received $75,000 from the late billionaire financier, and sent him highly-sensitive, market-moving government information while sitting round the cabinet table.
Starmer has been left with no option other than to cut all ties with the man he lauded less than a year ago.
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But this mother of all U-turns once again exposes the PM’s woeful lack of judgment and comes at a time when his MPs’ wafer-thin patience in him is already at breaking point.
With a crunch by-election to come on February 26, and local elections to follow on May 7, this latest scandal could hardly have come at a worse time for a prime minister fighting for his political life.
Keir Starmer is under mounting pressure to expel Lord Mandelson from the Labour Party after the latest revelations about his links to the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
The peer appears to feature in several bank statements released on Friday in the latest tranche of files related to the disgraced financier by the US government.
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In one bank statement, a payment of $25,000 to the account of Reinaldo Avila da Silva, now Lord Mandelson’s husband, features on May 14, 2003.
The statement appears to describe “Peter Mandelson” as the beneficiary of the payment.
Two later statements from May and June 2004 also feature $25,000 payments to Mandelson, one to an account which appears in his name, and another in which he appears to be listed as a beneficiary.
At the time, he was serving as Labour MP for Hartlepool.
Elsewhere in the newly-released Epstein documents, undated photographs of Lord Mandelson show him in a T-shirt and his pants, standing in what appears to be a hotel room.
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Mandelson, who was sacked as the UK’s ambassador to Washington last September over his links to Epstein, told the BBC he had no recollection of receiving the payments, and did not know if the documents were genuine.
Although he has given up the Labour whip in the House of Lords, Mandelson is still listed as one of the party’s peers on the parliamentary website and it is understood he is still a Labour member.
Labour MP Richard Burgon said: “Just how much more appalling news needs to come out about Peter Mandelson before the Labour leadership finally kicks him out of the party?”
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A government minister told HuffPost UK that Mandelson “should certainly be suspended” pending an investigation into the latest allegations.
Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, a former security minister, said: “Enough is enough. Peter Mandelson knew that his ‘best pal’ Jeffrey Epstein was a convicted sex offender. He continued engaging with him anyway.
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“I don’t believe for a second that Mandelson cares about the victims. He put his own interests first. The fact that he’s still a member of the Labour Party is a disgrace.
“The fact that Keir is even considering returning the whip to him in the House of Lords is a disgrace. If Labour is really so concerned about the victims, they should kick him out.”
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He put his own interests first.The fact that he’s still a… pic.twitter.com/aq1psA4x7L— Tom Tugendhat (@TomTugendhat) February 1, 2026\n\n\n","options":{"_hide_media":{"label":"Hide photos, videos, and cards","value":false},"_maxwidth":{"label":"Adjust width","placeholder":"220-550, in px","value":""},"_theme":{"value":"","values":{"dark":"Use dark theme"}}},"provider_name":"Twitter","thumbnail_height":364,"thumbnail_url":"https://pbs.twimg.com/amplify_video_thumb/2017991400499929088/img/KsgbbFlfA2iXOJaT.jpg:large","thumbnail_width":640,"title":"Tom Tugendhat on Twitter / X","type":"rich","url":"https://twitter.com/TomTugendhat/status/2017991483706458376","version":"1.0"},"flags":[],"enhancements":{},"fullBleed":false,"options":{"theme":"news","device":"desktop","editionInfo":{"id":"uk","name":"U.K.","link":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk","locale":"en_GB"},"originalEdition":"uk","isMapi":false,"isAmp":false,"isMobile":false,"isAdsFree":false,"isVideoEntry":false,"isEntry":true,"isMt":false,"entryId":"697f7c8ee4b0e43ffdf7e816","entryPermalink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/kick-him-out-keir-starmer-under-pressure-to-expel-mandelson-over-epstein-links_uk_697f7c8ee4b0e43ffdf7e816","entryTagsList":"keir-starmer,lord-mandelson,@ai_seo_headline","sectionSlug":"politics","deptSlug":null,"sectionRedirectUrl":null,"subcategories":"","isWide":false,"isShopping":false,"headerOverride":null,"noVideoAds":false,"disableFloat":false,"isNative":false,"commercialVideo":{"provider":"custom","site_and_category":"uk.politics","package":null},"isHighline":false,"vidibleConfigValues":{"cid":"60afc140cf94592c45d7390c","disabledWithMapiEntries":false,"overrides":{"all":"60b8e525cdd90620331baaf4"},"whitelisted":["56c5f12ee4b03a39c93c9439","56c6056ee4b01f2b7e1b5f35","59bfee7f9e451049f87f550b","5acccbaac269d609ef44c529","570278d2e4b070ff77b98217","57027b4be4b070ff77b98d5c","56fe95c4e4b0041c4242016b","570279cfe4b06d08e3629954","5ba9e8821c2e65639162ccf1","5bcd9904821576674bc55ced","5d076ca127f25f504327c72e","5b35266b158f855373e28256","5ebac2e8abddfb04f877dff2","60b8e525cdd90620331baaf4","60b64354b171b7444beaff4d","60d0d8e09340d7032ad0fb1a","60d0d90f9340d7032ad0fbeb","60d0d9949340d7032ad0fed3","60d0d9f99340d7032ad10113","60d0daa69340d7032ad104cf","60d0de02b627221e9d819408"],"playlists":{"default":"57bc306888d2ff1a7f6b5579","news":"56c6dbcee4b04edee8beb49c","politics":"56c6dbcee4b04edee8beb49c","entertainment":"56c6e7f2e4b0983aa64c60fc","tech":"56c6f70ae4b043c5bdcaebf9","parents":"56cc65c2e4b0239099455b42","lifestyle":"56cc66a9e4b01f81ef94e98c"},"playerUpdates":{"56c6056ee4b01f2b7e1b5f35":"60b8e525cdd90620331baaf4","56c5f12ee4b03a39c93c9439":"60d0d8e09340d7032ad0fb1a","59bfee7f9e451049f87f550b":"60d0d90f9340d7032ad0fbeb","5acccbaac269d609ef44c529":"60d0d9949340d7032ad0fed3","5bcd9904821576674bc55ced":"60d0d9f99340d7032ad10113","5d076ca127f25f504327c72e":"60d0daa69340d7032ad104cf","5ebac2e8abddfb04f877dff2":"60d0de02b627221e9d819408"}},"connatixConfigValues":{"defaultPlayer":"16b0ecc6-802c-4120-845f-e90629812c4d","clickToPlayPlayer":"823ac03a-0f7e-4bcb-8521-a5b091ae948d","videoPagePlayer":"05041ada-93f7-4e86-9208-e03a5b19311b","defaultPlaylist":"2e062669-71b4-41df-b17a-df6b1616bc8f"},"topConnatixThumnbailSrc":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABCAQAAAC1HAwCAAAAC0lEQVR42mNkYAAAAAYAAjCB0C8AAAAASUVORK5CYII=","customAmpComponents":[],"ampAssetsUrl":"https://amp.assets.huffpost.com","videoTraits":null,"positionInUnitCounts":{"buzz_head":{"count":0},"buzz_body":{"count":0},"buzz_bottom":{"count":0}},"positionInSubUnitCounts":{"article_body":{"count":5},"blog_summary":{"count":0},"before_you_go_content":{"count":0}},"connatixCountsHelper":{"count":0},"buzzfeedTracking":{"context_page_id":"697f7c8ee4b0e43ffdf7e816","context_page_type":"buzz","destination":"huffpost","mode":"desktop","page_edition":"en-uk"},"tags":[{"name":"keir starmer","slug":"keir-starmer","links":{"relativeLink":"news/keir-starmer","permalink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/keir-starmer","mobileWebLink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/keir-starmer"},"url":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/keir-starmer/"},{"name":"lord mandelson","slug":"lord-mandelson","links":{"relativeLink":"news/lord-mandelson","permalink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/lord-mandelson","mobileWebLink":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/lord-mandelson"},"url":"https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/news/lord-mandelson/"}],"isLiveblogLive":null,"isLiveblog":false,"backfillRelatedArticles":[],"signInUrl":"https://login.huffpost.com/login?dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffpost.com%2Fentry%2Fkick-him-out-keir-starmer-under-pressure-to-expel-mandelson-over-epstein-links_uk_697f7c8ee4b0e43ffdf7e816%3Fhp_auth_done%3D1","cetUnit":"buzz_body","enableIncontentPlayer":true,"bodyAds":["
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Starmer “must act”.
Posting on X, she said: “If Keir Starmer had a backbone he would suspend Mandelson’s membership of the Labour Party and launch an immediate investigation into how Mandelson and his husband were being sent money by the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
“At the time Mandelson was Labour’s Business Secretary and acting as Deputy Prime Minister. This is an international scandal. The cover up needs to end. The Prime Minister must act.”
Asked on Sky News whether Mandelson should be stripped of his peerage, communities secretary Steve Reed said: “I think before taking any action like that, we need to understand exactly what’s happened.
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“You’re asking me here about something that happened nearly 20 years ago. I don’t know the full detail of it, I wasn’t in government 20 years ago.
“I don’t know whether he declared it or not, and he should have done – the declaration rules had been brought in by then – so I think it would be for Peter Mandelson to explain whether or not that money was properly declared, and if not, then he will need to account for that.”
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints seriously and they are investigated in line with our rules and procedures.”
Andy Burnham has launched his bid to be Labour’s candidate in a crunch by-election and return to Westminster as an MP.
The Manchester mayor told Labour bosses of his intentions to stand in Gorton and Denton following the resignation on health grounds of sitting MP Andrew Gwynne.
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In a letter posted on X, Burnham – who quit as an MP in 2017 – said it was time for him to try to return to parliament.
As a mayor, he has to seek special permission from Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) to be allowed to apply to be a candidate.
Burnham said it had been “a difficult decision”, but vowed to run a “hopeful and unifying campaign” if chosen to as Labour’s candidate.
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He there was now “a direct threat to everything Greater Manchester has always been about from a brand of politics which seeks to pit people against each other” – an apparent reference to Reform UK and the rise of the far-right.
He added: “I see this by-election as the front line of that fight for the Manchester way and I feel I owe it to a city which has given me so much to lead it from the front, despite the risks involved.”
I have today written to the Chair of Labour’s National Executive Committee seeking permission to enter the selection process for a candidate for the forthcoming Gorton and Denton by-election.
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I have today written to the Chair of Labour’s National Executive Committee seeking permission to enter the selection process for a candidate for the forthcoming Gorton and Denton by-election.
Burnham’s decision tees up a major battle with Downing Street, where allies of Keir Starmer want the NEC to block his candidacy so he can’t mount a leadership challenge against the prime minister.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast in November, he refused to rule out making a third bid to lead Labour at some point in the future.
He said: “I am not going to sit here this morning and rule out what might or might not happen in the future. Why would I? I don’t know what the future holds.”
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But blocking his candidacy would potentially trigger a civil war in the party, with senior figures including Labour mayor Sadiq Khan demanding that Burnham be allowed to stand.
Khan told a Fabian Society conference on Saturday: “I’m a firm believer in the best team having all the talent playing for them.”
Energy secretary Ed Miliband told the same event: “I very much hope the local party will have the option of selecting Andy Burnham as the candidate”.
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Even if he were chosen as Labour’s candidate, there is no guarantee that Burnham would be elected as polls indicate the Gorton and Denton seat is now a three-way marginal between Labour. Reform UK and the Greens.
The government had been due to move an amendment to the legislation on Monday which critics said would have watered it down to protect members of the intelligence services.
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The aim of the new law, which was promised in Labour’s 2024 election manifesto, is to end cover-ups by public bodies in the wake of major disasters such as the Hillsborough disaster and the Manchester Arena bombing.
Labour whips were bracing themselves for a major backbench rebellion if the vote had gone ahead.
But ministers announced on Sunday night that it was no longer moving the amendment and was seeking further talks with MPs and victims’s families.
A government spokesperson said: “This legislation will right the wrongs of the past, changing the balance of power to ensure the state can never hide from the people it should serve and putting a legal duty on officials to respond openly and honestly when things go wrong.
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“The bill will make the police, intelligence agencies and the whole of government more scrutinised than they have ever been, but we can never compromise on national security.
“We will continue to work with all parties to make sure the Bill is the strongest it can possibly be, without compromising national security.”
Under the law, a “duty of candour” would be introduced making it illegal for those in positions of authority to withhold information from investigations.
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The government amendment would have allowed the heads of the security services to decide whether or not to disclose information involving their operations.
Ministers insisted the change was necessary to protect national security.
But speaking on Sunday, Labour MP Ian Byrne – who was at Hillsborough on the day of the tragedy in 1989 – told the BBC he was prepared to vote against the government amendment.
Reacting to the government’s decision to pull its amendment, Byrne, the MP for Liverpool West Derby, told HuffPost UK: “I’m delighted to see this pause.
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“Now I urge the government to either adopt my amendment or work with us to draft a new amendment which makes the legislation worthy of the name Hillsborough and a legacy to the 97 [Liverpool fans who died].”