New Peter Mandelson revelations Pile Pressure on Starmer
Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership crisis has deepened after fresh revelations about his dealings with Lord Mandelson and a growing revolt among his ministers and MPs. The Sunday Times has more.
The worst week of Starmer’s leadership continued when it emerged that, shortly before he appointed Mandelson as US ambassador, he had received a report detailing the peer’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
The Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team’s document said that the friendship had continued after Epstein’s conviction for soliciting child prostitution. It casts further doubt on Starmer’s initial backing of Mandelson over the scandal.
The Prime Minister’s handling of the affair, a week after he bungled the sacking of Angela Rayner as his deputy, has left MPs and ministers feeling he cannot lead them into the next general election. One minister described the situation as “terminal”.
The first two weeks of the new Westminster term, which should have been a reset for Starmer, have instead proved extraordinarily damaging. Reeling from the loss of his deputy, he dug in to support Mandelson at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday before sacking him the day after – less than a week before President Trump’s state visit.
No 10 claimed that Starmer changed his position only after new information about the peer and Epstein became public. However, it has emerged that he was told months ago that the association posed potential diplomatic and reputation risks. He was also warned of Mandelson’s business links with China. Despite the briefing, the PM went ahead with the appointment last December.
The disclosure poses questions about the Labour leader’s political judgment. Cabinet ministers and MPs are furious that he did not anticipate the damage it would cause. Morgan McSweeney, the No 10 chief of staff who is also the subject of parliamentary Labour Party anger, was aware of the document.
There is fear in Labour that Starmer is going to deliver the country to Nigel Farage. “I think it is pretty terminal, to be honest,” one senior government minister said. “Hushed conversations that are being had among friends are swiftly coming to the overriding conclusion that Keir cannot lead us into the next general election. The only question left is who we are replacing him with.”
Another minister said No 10 was rudderless. “There is no content or agenda, there is no political leadership,” the minister said. “The PM can’t keep asking someone else to tell him how to lead.” Someone else added: “Nobody thinks this can go on much longer.”
A Whitehall figure added of McSweeney: “Keir has lost control of his advisers. Heads have to roll.”
Worth reading in full.
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This is bloody brilliant. Reform don’t need to do anything to win the next election the way Labour are going.
Hopefully Labour elect Lucy “little trumpet” Powell as Deputy. Reform should just play her R4 clip on repeat for every party political broadcast.
As the adage goes ‘oppositions do not win elections – governments lose them’.
Yes, having Dog Whistle Powell as Deputy Leader will be a boost for Reform.
I just hope Reform will be ready.
That is a problem. Structurally they won’t be ready for another couple of years.
Another couple of years is fine. If Starmer does go it doesn’t mean the Government falls, we’ve got 4 more years of this.
I can’t envisage a scenario that leads to an early election.
I am not quite convinced that Reform are quite what they pretend to be. I see treachery.
It’s been accepted that Blair’s constitutional changes, outsourcing decision making away from Parliament, needs to be repealed before any changes can be accomplished, with a detailed manifesto to neutralise the intransigent civil service and the stubborn House of Lords, yet what have Reform done?
It looks like not much, so is their goal to gain office, and not reform, to benefit the country?
After a year, we are still waiting. And the country is being damaged more than we are being told:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/09/15/miliband-cost-britain-1bn-barrels-north-sea-oil
They won’t be.
And replace 2TK with Big Gob Rayner.
It does not make sense. First we had the tories driving us to destruction only for them to be ordered to give way for Buggins’ term and we cop for the ruddy dalek Kneel who is continuing on the same course only worse in the certain expectation that Reform will take over. Or is it a double con and a snap election will be lost by a wholly disorganised Reform leading to the installation of a Marxist coalition mob?
Cameron wasn’t a conservative, he was the Heir to Blair. He even said so, and was proud of it!
Rather than stupid, are they all Fabians WEF globalists, deliberately undermining the country and steering us towards digital serfdom under an unelected elite?
I think Lucy Powell referred to the world’s smallest violin not little trumpet.
If political parties continue to offer weak candidates it is inevitable the pool of available people to be PM will also be weak. That is a good explanation of the poor quality of PMs and Ministers over the past 25 years.
Ditto civil servants.
Since 1945 – exceptionnel Margaret Thatcher.
And Liz Truss showed what would happen if any positive policy was proposed: ambushed by the Bank of England.
The trouble is that 2TK is probably the best of a bad lot.
Best turd in the cesspit
Everything around Epstein is weird and makes little sense.
There is something that doesn’t quite add up to me and that is that someone like Mandelson who is obviously politically very savvy would continue to be openly supportive of Epstein after his conviction, asserting that Epstein was being treated very unfairly. Why would he do that? Makes no sense, unless he actually believed it. And if he believed it, why?
The only thing that is clear to me is that Epstein is like radioactive material that is used to take people down.
I don’t care about Mandelson, I just can’t help thinking it’s all very weird and that this is just one more instance where public outrage is manufactured and used in a power game of some sort.
I wonder if Tone is in there somewhere too, would it surprise anyone?
I hope it traps Clinton and Gates.
Erm, No.
Mandelson would not expect his communications to become public, didn’t anticipate Epstein’s death, and such characters as Mandelson see themselves as untouchable. Just look how many times he has fallen from grace and come back.
The revelations – if they are to be believed – suggest Mandelson actually believed Epstein was unfairly treated, not that he was unlucky to get caught or was unlucky not to get away with it.
It’s just all a bit too weird. And I know when I’m being played. Every time someone’s name is attached to Epstein, it seems so obvious it’s part of someone’s play against someone else and we are all the useful idiot mob stirred up against the target.
Surely the answer is that Epstein had Kompromat on Mandelson, so he had no choice but to support him.
Some say the whole purpose of Epstein was to get exactly that against everyone. Even that Epstein was a Mossad project.
Take a look / listen at this incredibly detailed account of the myriad and complex web of corruption, blackmail and deceit behind the whole Epstein empire and shows how far it reaches. Peter McCormack interviews Whitney Webb
Its a long one
https://youtu.be/EwejUh3m9Fg?si=1-CBmK1tSbiByQhq
After he’s been convicted? What for? You just keep quiet at that point, even if you’re compromised. Mandelson clearly went over and above, and seemingly really believed Epstein was treated unfairly – if you are to believe the revelations.
I thought Mandelson’s appointment was odd in the first place. He already had left posts in disgrace twice before, why appoint him again? Was there really no one else to do this job?
The delusion that this slip up amongst the Rayner thing will deliver power to Nigel Farage, Nigel Farage does not need Labour to give him anything, it is already his, Labour proved thmeselves unsuitable to run even a bath within a week of their being elected.
I must admit I don’t get it either.
Why was Peter Mandelson chosen?
This guy had a dodgy history. He had been sacked three times for corruption. He had a connection with Epstein. And yet, he got appointed.
In all honesty, I just don’t get it. What was his appeal? Why couldn’t they find someone else? Fair enough, the talent pool is pretty shallow. But still, you would think they would have chosen somebody without the dodgy past.
The Left believes they can do no wrong, and even if they do it is for the right reasons.
Rumours are currently flying about super injunctions, granted because Starmer has his right to family life, forbidding discussion of fire-bombing-Ukrainian-rent-boy links to Starmer. Is it unlikely that Mandelson has old similar stuff on Starmer? Isn’t that probably why he got the job?
I wouldn’t be surprised.
The entire Epstein affair stinks like a rotting corpse.
I suspect he provided special services to a lot of very influential people and he probably catered for all sorts of orientations and preferences. Not just to those who liked underage girls.
And yeah, it’s a bit weird that there is such radio silence about the fire bombing Ukrainian rent boys. No explanation, no motive given, no investigation.
Compare that with the treatment Boris Johnson got when he and Carrie had a tiff about red wine spilt on the sofa. It was main news on the BBC and the Guardian, given some cosmic importance and detailed analysis.
Agreed. And hands up if you believe Epstein committed suicide.
Don’t see many takers…
I see no hands at all.
Watch Andre Walker talk to “the cabbie” on his YouTube channel. It is, apparently, common knowledge amongst the Black Cabbies.
Why? Probably to repay a favour given, or to gain a future favour.
Politics is full of quid pro quo.
Agreed. Common sense would dictate…
Whoops, I’ll leave it there.
There could be some great hilarity to come if they do want Burnham to become leader and PM because he will have to win a byelection. Is there a seat safe enough for him to win with everyone standing for the seat? Can the low level of Labour support withstand the Fruit & Nut stabby party in a fight against Reform?
As for others? Streeting is a lot of people’s favourite but in his past he hoped that Mail journalist Jan Moir would be run over by a bus and killed. And in true snivelling Far Left style he said it was a bad thing to have said but of course never apologised to Moir.
The left are unpleasant people with very unpleasant opinions, the reaction to the murder of Charlie Kirk is very instructive. They lack a moral compass.
The bielection would have to be in Liverpool
Burnham would probably walk a Greater Manchester, currently Liebour constituency.
I wonder if a nearby MP will fall on his own sword, thereby creating an opening for an MP?
That’s all a beleaguered town needs…
Postal voting could be very busy.
Streeting only has a majority of about 500 and will lose badly at the next election. They need a new leader in a safe seat ….and there aren’t many of those left any more.
Yep, Starmer really is the lad who did well at his A Levels and is only now coming to realise that the rest of the world does not function like his school and that, anyway, he is a crap headmaster.
A-Level standards aren’t what they used to be.
He would not even have made Head Boy at my school- not enough charisma
The world would be a better place if Sydney Sweeney replaced Morgan McSweeney
Oh yes, bring it on!
It’s an ill-wind…
Good news for Teresa May, in contrast her political acumen and Government management look genius.
I’m not so sure I’d go that far: political management, more likely. 🙂
“There is fear in Labour that Starmer is going to deliver the country to Nigel Farage. ”
The whole Labour government has already delivered the country to Nigel Farage.
The whole flag saga is very instructive. Clearly, Starmer in the past, including summer 2024, had little interest in England, the UK, and the national flags that represents them. Then, when it was obvious that pushing back against “Operation Raise the Colours” was doomed to failure, he and Cooper, went overboard with their ‘patriotic support’ for the flag, with statements that were completely fake and manufactured. Now it’s gone a step further, after hundreds of thousands have shown their support for the country and the flag, and in a last desperate attempt, he’s trying to revert to Churchill with the “We will never surrender [the flag]”. The man is a complete fraud, with no leadership qualities whatsoever, The sooner he is gone, the better.
Yes …. and his statement said “the UK is built on diversity” …. the opposite of what the marching million (and watching millions) wanted to hear. Talk about tone deaf.
lying starmer has to go he can take the rest of lying liebour with him 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 898,738,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 with as many like minded people as you possibly can and be sure to ask each one if them to do exactly the same as im asking you to do in this message….yes im well aware that many say petitions are a waste of time and achieve nothing well if thats true then why are gestapo book and you tube currently censoring and suppressing this one in the way they currently are after all if petitions really are pointless and achieve nothing then why would they even bother???
“There is fear in Labour that Starmer is going to deliver the country to Nigel Farage.”
Looks like he already has. For once, the British people might just beat the Establishment’s rigged systems.
Before all you Reform lot start celebrating think who his deputy is!!!
Mandelson, formerly dubbed the ‘Prince of Darkness’ seems to be living up to his nickname.