Half of British voters now believe that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer should step down from his position as leader in the wake of the Epstein scandal enveloping his former ambassador.
Prime Minister Starmer is fighting for his political life following his explosive admission this week that he appointed Lord Peter Mandelson as his ambassador to the United States despite having been aware that the “Prince of Darkness” political operative had continued a relationship with convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein after he served prison time for child prostitution.
It came after the U.S. Department of Justice revealed in its tranche of Epstein documents that Lord Mandelson had allegedly provided Epstein with confidential government information that could have been used to game the financial markets and that he and his husband allegedly received thousands in payments from the New York moneyman.
In the wake of the disclosures, London’s Metropolitan Police announced an investigation into the former ambassador, who also previously served in the left-wing Labour governments of prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. On Friday evening, officers raided Mandelson’s properties in London and Wiltshire.
Amid the sensational developments, which came on top of an already politically disastrous first year in office, Prime Minister Starmer is widely seen as hanging on to power by a thread, while potential rivals such as his ousted ex-deputy Angela Rayner are all but openly manoeuvring for his job.
The public appears to be further souring on the PM, with a YouGov poll finding that 50 per cent of voters think Starmer should step down, compared with just 24 per cent who say he should remain in his post.
Even among those who voted for Starmer’s Labour Party in 2024, opinion is split: 37 per cent say he should resign, and 40 per cent back him to stay in power.
A separate YouGov survey for the Times of London this week found that 51 per cent of voters see Starmer as being just as, if not more, sleazy than Boris Johnson, who was ousted as prime minister in 2022.
The poll further found that nearly one in three see the Labour government as sleazier than the previous Conservative government, including 25 per cent of those who voted Labour in the previous election.
Meanwhile, only 23 per cent said Starmer has handled the Mandelson affair well, compared with 43 per cent who said he has performed poorly. Additionally, just 14 per cent said that the pm has demonstrated good judgment.
Johnson, who, like Starmer, swept to power on a large majority in the House of Commons, was mired by multiple scandals in the waning months of his premiership, including allegations of breaching his own draconian coronavirus lockdown restrictions by holding parties in Number 10 while the public were barred from doing so.
Starmer — who faced a lockdown party scandal himself — nevertheless led the charge demanding Johnson’s resignation over the Downing Street gatherings.
However, it was a sex scandal involving an appointee that ultimately doomed the PM, after allegations emerged that Johnson’s former deputy chief whip, Christopher Pincher, had groped two young men in a London private members’ club.
For his part, Starmer has attempted to use the spectre of Brexit boss Nigel Farage taking power to scare his backbenches into rallying around his government and to fend off a Labour leadership challenge.
Such an argument is not without its merit, with the Labour Party facing potential electoral wipeout to Farage’s Reform UK party, according to all polling over the past year.
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