Peter Mandelson Sacked as US Ambassador – Piling Crisis onto Crisis for Starmer
Keir Starmer is fighting to survive his second crisis in a week as he is forced to sack Peter Mandelson as US ambassador over “disgusting” Epstein emails just 24 hours after backing him and only days since Angela Rayner quit. The Mail has more.
Keir Starmer is wrestling to contain a full-blown meltdown today after he was forced to sack Lord Mandelson as US ambassador.
The PM finally acted after another excruciating cache of messages emerged from the peer to the notorious paedophile whom Mandelson called “my best pal”.
The dramatic departure throws the Government deeper into chaos, just a week before Donald Trump’s state visit.
It is just six days since Sir Keir conducted a panicky reshuffle triggered by Angela Rayner resigning over her tax affairs – amid claims the premier is “lurching from crisis to crisis”.
Sir Keir now faces mounting questions about his judgement, with even Labour MPs warning the party is “stained at the very top”.
Bloomberg News said details of the newly uncovered emails had been sent to Lord Mandelson for comment on Monday – but the premier continued to voice “full confidence” in him at PMQs yesterday.
Sources insisted the messages had not even been available to the peer himself when he was appointed last year, as they were in an old account. As a result they were not considered in vetting.
The decision was taken at a summit between Sir Keir and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper at around 10am, where they agreed that Lord Mandelson’s position was “untenable”.
Lord Mandelson has been forced to resign from government twice before, over an undeclared loan in 1998 and again in 2001 over claims he tried to influence a passport application – although a probe later found he had broken no rules.
Foreign Office Minister Stephen Doughty told MPs this morning that it was now clear the New Labour architect’s relationship with Epstein was “materially different” than had been known when he was appointed.
“In light of the additional information in the emails written by Peter Mandelson, the Prime Minister has asked the Foreign Secretary to withdraw him as ambassador to the United States,” he said.
“The emails show that the depth and extent of Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment.”
Downing Street refused to repeat Wes Streeting’s description of the messages as “disgusting”, instead saying they were “reprehensible”.
In the damning new emails, Lord Mandelson told his “best pal” Epstein just before the twisted financier was convicted for preying on children in 2008: “Everything can be turned into an opportunity.”
The Labour peer – who sent Epstein photos of himself topless in a toe-curling birthday greeting in 2003 – suggested his legal troubles “just could not happen in Britain”.
And he told the billionaire – found dead in his cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for molesting hundreds of schoolgirls – that “I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened”.
Lord Mandelson has since voiced regret about being taken in by Epstein.
Worth reading in full.
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Did the Prime Minister not ask the Security Services to report on Mandelson before the appointment. I hope they have a full picture on his past activities.
Given his high office in the past and the sorts of people he has mixed with, worked with and been paid by, one would expect the MI5 file to be large as should those of MI6 /GCHQ.
After this fiasco a fair Parliamentary question to the PM (in writing during the recess) would be about checks on all members of the government and diplomatic service. Are they not done any more or did TTK over rule the summary conclusion.
September 11th, a good day to bury bad news.
Again.
Who would have thought that the Prince of Darkness would be best pals with a convicted paedophile.
So, our PM is 2TK, Free Gear, Contemptible, and a Ships Anchor. Not the worse PM since Lord North, but actually the worst PM there’s ever been.
I saw this on a newspaper comment page. Food for thought?
Ask not what Starmer knew of Mandelson
Ask instead what Mandelson knew of Starmer
Oooooooooh, interesting!
The Prince of Darkness did say “there’s more to come”. Hmmmm, do you happen to know three young Ukrainians men, Pete?
Shame Starmer wasn’t so fastidious about Reeves’ CV. Maybe there’s still time.
Those Ukraine boys really knock me out,
They have the best behinds,
Back in the EUSSR soon boys,….
I wonder what the files on Sir Keir show?
Super injunction.
For sure.
Lads! Don’t worry about Starmer. He has a standard response to every disaster: get on the phone to his mates Emmanuel the Immortal, & Merz the Russia-killer, and shoot off to another “coalition of the wilting” meeting where they regurgitate the same old gramophone record of “peacekeeping NATO troops” (unacceptable to Russia of course), and whatever other fantasies they can while away the time with.
Then they come back to fawning media headlines, and they’re all big shots once again. Simples!
“Lord Mandelson has since voiced regret” at being found out.
Hat Trick – sacked 3 times in his political career.
Hard to believe that none of this was known to Starmer, unless someone decided it was best not to fully brief him
Plenty more to come out I suspect.
It could be that Starmer took the view that he might work well with Trump in his Ambassador role, such as negotiating the tariff levels etc. After all, both of them (Mandelson & Trump) knew a fair bit about Epstein.
At the end of the day, all boiled down what we have with Peter Mandelson is nothing more than a posh talking spiv. That really is all he is. The fact that he has ensconced himself in the recesses of the British establishment – whoever they are – for a skill set equivalent to a market-trader says all that’s needed about Britain today.
What an indictment.
A posh talking spiv …. but the grandson of Labour Party “royalty.” Nepotism rules in the Labour Party.
Snout and Trough go their separate ways.
“Taken in by Epstein.”
Only a deaf-blind person could possibly have been “taken in” by Epstein’s protestations of innocence following a guilty verdict and when the evidence of corruption, abuse, child-trafficking and prostitution was obvious.
Or perhaps he had a different meaning in his version of “taken in.”
It’s odd that someone with a skeleton that big in his cupboard deliberately aspired
to such dizzy heights from which to fall. A fatal flaw worthy of a Greek tragedy.The question should be who put Mandelson’s name in the frame in the first place? For someone with a history of ingratiation with the rich, powerful and less salubrious, was it by suggestion of another of his influential “friends” leaning on Suck-Ear, that led to his appointment?
A man with similarities with Roger Casement – in terms of preferences, not humanitarianism.
Ccisis after crisis after crisis, surely lying liebour cant keep hanging on, they have to go. The uk public have had enough, we demand a general election…check out and read carefully a petition on the uk government and parliament petition page…call an immediate general election it currently has 893,291, signatures it urgently needs many more and you can help in getting them first be sure to sign it and most importantly be sure to reshare it widely all over the uk…wales/northern ireland/ scotland/england/…with as many like minded people as you possibly can and be sure to ask each one of them to do exactly the same as im asking you to do……many say it will achieve nothing and cant possibly do anything and is therefore pointless however if thats true then why are the usual suspects continuing to censor and suppress it after all if it really wont have any effect and wont do anything why would they even bother…and yes by saying the usual suspects i do mean who you think i mean