UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and his censorious chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, are on the ropes after shocking revelations from the Epstein emails have struck at the heart of government.
Revelations about the behaviour of Peter Mandelson — until this week a senior and influential Labour figure, a former government minister, former European Commissioner, and former British Ambassador to the United States — have shocked and appalled in the UK, and his erstwhile political allies have scrambled to get away from him. But the simple fact that he is undeniably tied up in the very heart of Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government, being an ally and advisor to the Prime Minister and his all-powerful chief of staff, may make the events of recent days one scandal too many.
It is already evident Sir Keir no longer commands the House of Commons — the very most basic qualification for a Prime Minister in the British system — with Starmer being forced into yet another u-turn on Wednesday on the release of Mandelson documents just 90 minutes after setting out his original position. Top Westminster gossip blog Guido Fawkes states Starmer is in crisis talks with his Downing Street team tonight and that major developments may be just days or hours away.
A government source cited by Fawkes stated it is “not at all clear” that Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s all-powerful chief of staff, who personally campaigned to shut down Breitbart News and other conservative-leaning outlets, “will survive” the Mandelson emails, given their very close links. It has been claimed this week that McSweeney personally intervened to get Mandelson to the top of the candidate list for ambassador to the U.S., perhaps an early move to pin the blame on anyone but top-dog Sir Keir.
Yet McSweeney and Starmer rose together and may well fall together, their fates being so very entwined. Throwing McSweeney to the dogs in a bid to save Starmer’s skin may hasten his demise. Time will tell.
The Guardian, the British newspaper of the left and the publication that has the pulse of Labour parliamentarians better than any other, reports utter demoralisation. The paper’s lead story on Wednesday evening reports that the view among the Parliamentary Labour Party — which will ultimately decide the PM’s fate, democracy or not — is that Starmer’s days are numbered over the Mandelson revelations, with sentiment at rock bottom and support for the Prime Minister exhausted.
A common thread in the accounts printed by the paper, attributed to unnamed Labour MPs, is that when the Prime Minister admitted on Wednesday in Parliament that he knew about Mandelson’s continuing relationship with Epstein even after the American financier was convicted of child sex offences and yet still appointed him ambassador anyway was the watershed moment. One reportedly told The Guardian that: “You could feel the atmosphere change; it was dark”.
Another added: “The moment Keir admitted it then that was it – it’s over”.
Naturally, leadership talk has turned attention to who could replace Sir Keir, and at this time, that may be the ace up his sleeve: after he and McSweeney aggressively purged the party after taking power, there are precious few waiting in the wings to lead a coup. Conservative Member of Parliament turned commentator Jacob Rees-Mogg reflected on this in comments on Wednesday night when he remarked: “Who becomes the next leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister? Andy Burnham’s knocked out, Angela Rayner has her own sleaze scandal to work out… Wes Streeting, friend of Peter Mandelson’s. Shabana Mahmood, too right wing for Labour, I would have thought… so you come down to Ed Miliband, don’t you?”.
Indeed, the Guardian notes that one Labour MP allegedly said that if there weren’t a tax investigation underway against Rayner, a leadership challenge would already be underway.
This story is developing, so watch this space.
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