London (AFP) – Keir Starmer’s position as UK prime minister hit new trouble Monday after the leader of Scottish Labour demanded he quit for embroiling the British government in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Anas Sarwar is the most senior Labour politician to call on Starmer to resign for appointing Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, despite knowing he had maintained links to the convicted US sex offender. The call came after Starmer lost his second top aide in two days. He struggled to shore up his stuttering premiership but vowed in an emergency meeting with staff to carry on. He was to address Labour MPs at a crunch meeting later Monday.
“The distraction needs to end, and the leadership in Downing Street has to change,” Sarwar told a press conference in Glasgow. Calling Starmer a “decent man” who had “dedicated his life to public service,” he said there had nonetheless “been too many mistakes.” “They promised they were going to be different, but too much has happened,” the Scottish Labour leader added, noting he had spoken to Starmer. Attention now turns to whether any senior ministers call for Starmer to resign — a move which could set in motion his downfall. Downing Street insists Starmer has the unanimous backing of his cabinet. Several, including Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, signalled their support for the prime minister. “Keir Starmer won a massive mandate 18 months ago, for five years to deliver on Labour’s manifesto that we all stood on,” Lammy said on X.
In an address to Downing Street staff, Starmer vowed to “go forward…with confidence,” according to a government official speaking on condition of anonymity. “The prime minister is concentrating on the job in hand,” Starmer’s official spokesman told reporters, insisting that the Labour leader was feeling “upbeat,” despite increasing rumblings from members of parliament that his days are numbered. In another setback, Starmer’s communications chief Tim Allan on Monday quit just months into the role, the day after his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigned for advising Starmer to make the contentious Mandelson appointment. McSweeney’s departure deprives the beleaguered UK leader of his closest adviser and the man who helped Starmer drag Labour back to the centre after succeeding leftist leader Jeremy Corbyn in 2020.
Starmer has had several communications chiefs in his short tenure, with staff departures, policy U-turns, and missteps an increasing hallmark of his administration, denting his popularity. Conservative opposition leader Kemi Badenoch told BBC radio that Starmer’s position was now “untenable.” The fallout from the appointment of Mandelson, sparked by emails showing that he remained friends with Epstein long after the financier’s conviction in 2008, has grown into the most serious crisis of Starmer’s 19 months in power. Several backbench Labour MPs, mostly from the left of the party who have never warmed to Starmer, have suggested that the prime minister should follow McSweeney out the exit door. But no clear successor has emerged while the party faces key local elections in May, including in Scotland where Labour is expected to lose to the pro-independence Scottish National Party.
Labour has trailed Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK party by double-digit margins in polls over the past year. The surveys have heightened unease among Labour MPs, although the next general election is not due until 2029. Starmer sacked Mandelson in September last year after documents published by the US Congress revealed the extent of Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein, who killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex crimes. Documents released on January 30 by the US Justice Department reignited the controversy, appearing to show that Mandelson leaked confidential UK government information to Epstein when he was a British minister, including during the 2008 financial crisis. Police are investigating Mandelson, 72, for misconduct in a public office and raided two of his properties on Friday. He has not been arrested.
Starmer, a former human rights lawyer and top prosecutor for England and Wales, has apologised to Epstein’s victims and accused Mandelson of lying about the extent of his ties to the financier during the vetting for his appointment to Washington. The UK government is to release tens of thousands of emails, messages, and documents on Mandelson’s appointment, which could increase pressure on the prime minister and other senior ministers. Labour faces a crucial by-election on February 28 and defeat would add to Starmer’s woes.
© 2024 AFP
