Peter Mandelson has been sacked. The Prime Minister has spent just under 24 hours defending his US ambassador, who had come under fire after extraordinary new details of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein emerged on Tuesday. But as more elements of the story were reported, Mandelson’s position became increasingly untenable. He had to go.
Just as an urgent question on Mandelson aimed at the Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper got under way in the House of Commons, the British Embassy in Washington released a statement explaining that “in light of additional information in emails sent by Peter Mandelson”, Keir Starmer has asked Cooper to withdraw him as ambassador. The statement added: “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.”
Emails published by the Sun earlier this week revealed Mandelson had consoled Epstein while he was facing charges of soliciting a minor in 2008; a process which Mandelson described as “years of torture”. Mandelson encouraged Epstein, whom he once described as his “best pal”, to “fight for early release”. In an interview with Harry Cole on Wednesday, Mandelson admitted that still more “very embarrassing” details of his relationship with Epstein would come to light. With all this evidence against him, surely Starmer should have seen the writing on the wall?
But instead, this has been a terrible 24 hours for the Prime Minister. He was vociferous in his defence of Mandelson during PMQs yesterday despite the astonishing nature of the details that have emerged and Mandelson’s admission that more was yet to come. “I have confidence in him,” Starmer said, when pressed yesterday in the chamber. Labour MPs are incensed. The PM failed to act with such blatant evidence before him. This is the latest in a series of what many in the Parliamentary Labour Party see as a deep problem with how No 10 deals with crises: after the resignation of Angela Rayner last week, the government is losing senior figures at a rate of one a week.
No 10 has been insistent that due processes were followed in the appointment of Mandelson. But, it is not the way Mandelson ended up in this role that will damage Starmer – it is how he has acted since the evidence emerged. Labour MPs are clearly losing patience with the dire political judgement of the party leadership. How much more of this will they be willing to take?
[See also: The assassination of Charlie Kirk]
Content from our partners
Related
Join the debate
Subscribe here to comment