UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed to fight for his job on Monday as revelations about the relationship between the former UK Ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, spiralled into a full-blown crisis.
Starmer has been losing control over his Labour Party and support from within his 19-month old government has been waning.
Some lawmakers in Starmer’s centre-left party have been calling on him to resign over his judgement in appointing Mandelson to the high-profile diplomatic post in 2024, despite his ties to the disgraced American financier.
The leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, joined those calls on Monday, saying “there have been too many mistakes” and “the leadership in Downing Street has to change.”
Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, took the fall for the decision to give Mandelson the job by quitting on Sunday. He said he “advised the prime minister to make that appointment, and I take full responsibility for that advice.”
McSweeney had been Starmer’s most important aide since he became Labour leader in 2020 and is considered a key architect of Labour’s landslide July 2024 election victory.
But Starmer took a more resilient approach, insisting he will not step down.
“Every fight I have ever been in, I’ve won,” he told Labour lawmakers at a meeting in Parliament. “I’m not prepared to walk away from my mandate and my responsibility to my country,” he added.
Starmer fired Mandelson in September after emails were published showing that he maintained a relationship with Epstein following his 2008 conviction for sexual offences involving minors.
Critics say Starmer should have known better than to appoint Mandelson in the first place. The 72-year-old Labour politician is a contentious figure whose career has been repeatedly tarnished with scandals over money or ethics.
The US Justice Department’s release of millions of Epstein files revealed more details about Mandelson and Epstein’s ties, significantly ramping up pressure against the British premier.
Starmer apologised last week to Epstein’s victims and said he was sorry for “having believed Mandelson’s lies.”
He promised to release documentation related to Mandelson’s appointment, which the government says will show that Mandelson misled officials about his ties to Epstein.
The publication of documents could be weeks away, however, as they must be vetted on national security grounds and for potential conflicts with an ongoing police investigation.
Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said Starmer “has made bad decision after bad decision” and “his position now is untenable.”
Since winning office, Starmer has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living crisis. He pledged a return to honest government after 14 years of Conservative rule, but has been beset by missteps and U-turns over welfare cuts and other unpopular policies.
Quoted from Euronews.
