Sir Keir Starmer’s Peter Mandelson crisis is not going away, and the release of each new tranche of documents will make voters and Labour MPs alike question the judgement of a Prime Minister who is hurtling towards electoral disaster.
It is both baffling and chilling to read the warnings about Lord Mandelson’s relationship with sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein in the official advice given to Sir Keir. The PM, a man who makes a virtue of his caution, read these words and yet decided to hand him what is arguably Britain’s top diplomatic post.
This 269-word account of Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein and the potential for reputational risk states: “After Epstein was first convicted of procuring an under-age girl in 2008, their relationship continued across 2009-11, beginning when Lord Mandelson was business minister and continuing after the end of the Labour government.”
Why did Sir Keir feel he needed the advice of someone who had shown catastrophic personal judgement? Was he enthralled by the personal charm of the New Labour strategist, impressed by his mastery of realpolitik or frightened to turn him down?
It is highly convenient that the documents were squeaked out after Prime Minister’s Questions, so he did not have to defend his decisions in front of MPs. It is surely no coincidence that Sir Keir used the question session to cast himself as a leader who made the right calls on the Iran conflict while accusing Kemi Badenoch of having made the “mother of all U-turns” on military action.
This is audacious behaviour for a man whose premiership has been defined by U-turns in the face of public outcry at policies ranging from ending universal winter fuel payments for pensioners to hiking up inheritance tax on farmland.
The Labour leader knows that the upcoming local government and Welsh and Scottish parliament elections in May will be a referendum on his leadership. He is desperate to convince voters they would not be better off with Mrs Badenoch or Nigel Farage in No 10, claiming in the Commons that the former has “disqualified herself from ever becoming prime minister”.
But as further disclosures about his dealings with Mandelson are published, Labour MPs who are terrified of losing their seats will ask if he truly has what it takes to lead their party, never mind the country.
A grubby section of the most disclosed documents details Lord Mandelson haggling for a giant payout of nearly £550,000. There is outrage that he received £75,000.
In another email, the ousted ambassador said his “chief concern” was “leaving the US and arriving in the UK with the maximum dignity and minimum media intrusion”.
This insight into the priorities of someone who has had such influence on Labour for decades will trouble grassroots members who want their party to be a force for decency and fairness. The sense that the foundations are collapsing in the political home of Attlee and Bevan is driving many to look at Reform UK and the Greens.
Lord Mandelson has spoken of his regret at ever having met Epstein and denies all wrongdoing. But this is a toxic debacle for an embattled prime minister whose multitude of backbenchers will yearn for an opportunity to wipe the slate clean.