Keir Starmer believed Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein relationship ‘barely existed’ claims Cabinet minister: Live updates

Mail on Sunday columnist Dan Hodges hears Keir Starmer will attempt to ‘clarify’ his remarks in the Commons that he was aware of Peter Mandelson’s ongoing relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

The Prime Minister’s response to a question put forward by Kemi Badenoch sparked widespread anger across the Labour backbenches which has left him today fighting for political survival.

Starmer is scheduled to speak in Sussex later today on his plan to save Britain’s high streets.

New files relating to Keir Starmer’s appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador will add more fuel to a scandal that could propel him out of Downing Street.

The Prime Minister has been forced to order the publication of a trove of papers after Kemi Badenoch forced a Commons vote on the issue.

The files will include details of what Lord Mandelson told Starmer and Morgan McSweeney about the nature of his relationship with Epstein.

This could prove deeply damaging to Starmer, who admitted for the first time yesterday that he appointed the New Labour grandee despite knowing he had remained friends with Epstein after his conviction.

It’s understood Starmer asked Mandelson three questions before appointing him to Washington. He asked why Mandelson:

1. Why he continued contact with Epstein after he was convicted
2. Why he stayed in Epstein’s home while he was in prison
3. Was he associated with a charity founded by Epstein.

WhatsApp exchanges sent on private phones may be included, as could information relating to negotiations around the ‘golden goodbye’ paid to Lord Mandelson after his sacking.

But last night there were doubts about how much material would be released after the Metropolitan Police warned against publishing anything that could undermine its criminal investigation into Lord Mandelson’s activities.

Another Labour backbencher has today declared Keir Starmer will have to make a decision about his future as he urged him to ditch his closest aides over the ‘shoddy advice’ he has received in Downing Street.

Karl Turner, MP for Kingston Upon Hull East, said the atmosphere in the Commons was the ‘angriest’ he had witnessed after Starmer admitted he knew Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein had an ongoing relationship at the time he was appointed US ambassador.

Mr Turner told Times Radio he forwarded messages from people expressing their anger directly to the prime minister last night.

He thanked me, and I suspect he thanked those who were then messaging him.

My advice to the prime minister is get rid of those advisers who have frankly given terrible advice to him over weeks and months. The PM needs to deal with that and make a decision. If the PM decides he has to be surrounded by advisers who give him shoddy advice the reality of that is the prime minister is going to have to make a decision about his future some point soon

If McSweeney is still in 10 Downing Street the PM is up against it.

Labour MP and former shadow chancellor John McDonnell has called for a ‘caretaker leader’ to replace Keir Starmer in the wake of the Mandelson scandal.

Mr McDonnell, a key figure under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, said he had lost confidence in Starmer and that there needed to be a ‘cleansing of our party and politics’.

He made the remarks on X.

by Stephen Glover

The downfall of Peter Mandelson is an immense event in British politics. This bad, and now disgraced, man has been a key figure in the Labour Party for over 30 years.

When he published his memoirs in 2010, he simply called them The Third Man – the suggestion being that, after Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, he was the next most important figure during Labour’s rule from 1997 to 2010.

For once in his life Mandelson told the truth. He was Blair’s most influential lieutenant and did more than anyone else to help him achieve power. Later, from 2008, he served Gordon Brown, although the two men had hated each other.

In Mandelson’s memoirs (in which his friend the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein had a hand, as emails released by the US Department of Justice show) Brown comes across as virtually psychotic.

Mandelson occupied three senior positions in the Cabinet and ended up as First Secretary of State, which meant that he was effectively deputy prime minister to Brown.

He has been central to Labour, serving not only Blair and Brown but also Keir Starmer, as British ambassador to Washington, before revelations about his close relations with Epstein forced his resignation last September.

One of Keir Starmer’s former senior aides has claimed Peter Mandelson should have been kicked out of Labour at the time he was sacked as Britain’s ambassador to Washington.

James Lyons, who left his role as was director of strategic communications at Downing Street in September, told Sky News:

It was a mistake to allow him to remain in the Labour Party back in the autumn. I think it would be much better to take action then to remove him, rather than let him resign this week.

On his appointment in the first place, Lyons added:

I think people knew that this was a high risk, high reward strategy, but I don’t think anyone knew quite how risky it was/

Keir Starmer endured a painful day in the Commons yesterday and his humiliation was further compounded through AI as he appeared with Peter Mandelson in a video for Barry Manilow’s hit Mandy.

The men were ruthlessly mocked in the video with the record’s lyrics reworked to poke fun at the Mandelson scandal.

Lyrics include: ‘Well Mandy, you came and you lied without breaking. but I sent you away oh Mandy.’

Watch the video be

Some MPs have been talking up the credentials of defence minister Al Carns (pictured), although he has only been in Parliament since 2024.

Ed Miliband would also be in the frame as a replacement should Starmer be engulfed imminently, but has insisted he does not want the job.

One senior Labour source told the Daily Mail: ‘Would any credible challenger go before the by election or before May? That’s not tempting.’

Labour rules require one candidate to get nominations from 80 MPs in order to mount a challenge.

One senior Labour source told the Daily Mail: ‘Would any credible challenger go before the by election or before May? That’s not tempting.’

Keir Starmer is at risk of being blown away by the Mandelson scandal today – with his only hope that rivals are not ready to administer the coup de grace.

The PM has been warned the ‘clock is ticking’ on his leadership with even loyalists saying he is effectively finished.

So as rivals circle to oust him, we take a look at who could wield the knife?

Ms Rayner has huge support on the Labour benches, but is not thought to have settled her tax issues with HMRC after being forced to resign in September.

The Health Secretary is widely regarded as being on manoeuvres, but his chances may be harmed as he was previously close to Lord Mandelson.

The Greater Manchester mayor was blocked from standing in the Gorton & Denton by-election and so does not have the immediate platform to mount a challenge.

Steve Reed has blamed the vetting process for failing to flag up the extent of Lord Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein before his appointment to the US ambassadorship.

The Cabinet minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

The fault is with a long-established process that was gone through in the same way that it would have been for any other appointment of this kind, and it predates the arrival of this Government.

Clearly, we need to look at that vetting process. But decisions can only be taken on the basis of the information available at the time, and Mandelson lied and covered up the extent of his relationship.

Keir Starmer believed Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein ‘barely existed’ and that they ‘hardly knew each other’, Steve Reed has said.

The Housing Secretary said the Government wants to publish documents that show “what the Prime Minister saw when Peter Mandelson lied to him” before his appointment as ambassador to Washington “as quickly as possible”.

Speaking to LBC, he said:

You’re only as good as the information you receive. Mandelson made out that relationship barely existed, that they hardly knew each other.

There was a vetting process that included the security forces as well, and they flagged up no additional concerns. A liar is going to lie.

Keir Starmer will take questions from reporters later today as he attempts to move on from the Peter Mandelson scandal which has left him fighting for political survival.

The Prime Minister will make a speech in Sussex where he will announce £800 million in new funding to revamp decrepit high streets.

Starmer will warn the ‘devastating decline’ of communities could imperil national security and that Britain has been ‘undermined by political neglect’.

He will then take questions from reporters with the Mandelson controversy sure to feature.