Starmer facing leadership questions after Mandelson sacking

Sir Keir Starmer is facing mounting pressure from within the Labour party over his handling of the sacking of the US ambassador Peter Mandelson.

Labour MPs are expressing public and private frustration with the prime minister’s leadership, as he prepares to welcome US President Donald Trump on a state visit this week.

Lord Mandelson was sacked last week after a cache of emails reported by Bloomberg showed supportive messages he sent after convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to sex offences.

Labour backbencher Richard Burgon told Radio 4’s Today programme Sir Keir would be “gone” if May’s elections in Scotland, Wales and parts of England go badly for Labour.

The scandal, coming so soon after Angela Rayner’s resignation as deputy prime minister, has encouraged some Labour MPs to become more vocal about their frustrations with the prime minister’s judgement and the wider Downing Street operation.

Burgon is a longstanding left-wing critic of Starmer’s leadership but his comments nevertheless underline the scale of discontent within Labour.

Burgon said: “I think it’s inevitable that if May’s elections go as people predict and the opinion polls predict, then I think Starmer will be gone at that time.

“In terms of where we are now, it feels like we’re years and years into an unpopular government rather than a year into a government that’s just got rid of the Conservatives.

“We’re losing votes to the left, we’re going to be losing seats to the right.”

His words echoed a weekend of briefing by Labour MPs in public and in private questioning Sir Keir’s leadership.

Labour MP Helen Hayes told BBC Radio 4’s The Westminster Hour on Sunday that if the sacking were to affect the party’s chances in the May 2026 local elections, there would be questions about Sir Keir’s leadership.

“Questions about the nature of the leadership and whether things can continue as they are, but we’re not at that point now,” she said.

Hayes added that she felt “devastated” about Lord Mandelson, but said she believed he should not have been appointed in the first place.

With Trump’s state visit this week, and the Labour conference at the end of the month, Downing Street will be hoping to reset the agenda.

This week also marks the first flight sending asylum seeker deportees to France under the “one-in-one-out” deal signed in July.

Downing Street sources acknowledge that Sir Keir’s upcoming Labour party conference speech must make an impact and say MPs would be “left in no doubt what he stands for and what drives him”.

But this is the second week in a row the prime minister has begun by trying to draw a line under a scandal that led to a high profile exit, and move to a new chapter.

The mood in the parliamentary Labour party is bleak, and there are fears the past two weeks may have crystalised MPs’ concerns.

Government minister Baroness Smith, who served as home secretary under Gordon Brown, told the BBC in her experience “there will always be people in the Labour party worried about us going further and faster”.

“It is difficult at the moment given people’s insecurity and concern sometimes for mainstream politicians to cut through.”

She also hit back at Burgon’s prediction that Sir Keir will be replaced next year, telling BBC Breakfast the backbencher had never supported the prime minister.

She admitted that the sacking of Lord Mandelson as the ambassador to the US was “not what we would have wanted to happen in the run up to this week”, but said the PM was doing a good job.

The BBC reported on Sunday Sir Keir explicitly asked Mandelson about his links to the paedophile before deciding to appoint him as ambassador to the US.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives have demanded the prime minister release documents relating to Mandelson’s appointment.

In the letter to the prime minister, Tory MP Alex Burghart questioned what and when Sir Keir knew of Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein before defending the former ambassador during Prime Minister’s Questions last Wednesday.

He said that the scandal had exposed the PM’s “appalling judgement”.

“He ignored warnings about Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, forced through his appointment, and is avoiding scrutiny about what he knew,” Burghart wrote.

The Conservative MP’s letter also demanded the release of what he called the “Mandelson-Epstein Files” – government correspondence and internal documents related to the pair – and for Sir Keir and his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney to give evidence to Parliament.

Downing Street have already stressed that the prime minister only knew the contents of the emails on Wednesday evening and acted swiftly, sacking Mandelson within hours.

Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has warned Sir Keir’s leadership is “hanging by a thread” and demanded the prime minister explain Mandelson’s appointment in parliament.

Labour is facing a polling challenge from Reform UK, as leader Nigel Farage claimed Sir Keir’s judgement had left him “ever more distanced” from Labour’s roots.