Keir Starmer faces mounting Labour unrest today as he desperately tries to draw a line under Lord Mandelson’s humiliating exit.
Furious MPs are openly warning that Sir Keir is ‘not up to the job’ and ‘trust is eroding’ in the wake of the meltdown.
The PM has yet to speak publicly as finger are pointed at him and powerful chief aide Morgan McSweeney over the disastrous appointment of the peer as US ambassador.
The New Labour architect was dramatically sacked yesterday after the emergence of a tranche of extraordinary emails to notorious paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, describing him as his ‘best pal’.
There are disputed claims that Mr McSweeney drove the original appointment, and wanted to save the peer even after the latest email revelations.
Sir Keir’s former chief of staff Sue Gray is also said to have drawn up an initial short list for the Washington job that did not include Lord Mandelson.
Clive Lewis became the first Labour MP to call for the PM to go this afternoon.
The left-wing backbencher told the BBC’s The Week In Westminster programme: ‘You see a Labour Prime Minister who feels that he’s lost control within the first year.
‘This isn’t navel-gazing. This is me thinking about my constituents, this country, and the fact that the person who is eight points ahead of us is Nigel Farage. That terrifies me. It terrifies my constituents, and it terrifies a lot of people in this country.
‘We don’t have the luxury of carrying on this way with someone who I think increasingly, I’m sorry to say, just doesn’t seem up to the job.’
He added that the atmosphere in the Parliamentary part was ‘very, very dangerous’ following a ‘deeply unpopular’ reshuffle.
He said: ‘People are concerned, slightly downtrodden, a little bit browbeaten and feeling as if the party has seen better days – it’s not a great atmosphere.’
Sir Keir Starmer pictured with Britain’s ambassador to the US Lord Mandelson in February
Fingers are being pointed at the PM and his chief aide Morgan McSweeney (pictured) over the disastrous appointment of the peer as US ambassador
Lord Mandelson – who once infamously declared himself ‘intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich’ – in a fluffy white dressing gown enjoying a chat with Jeffrey Epstein
The PM has yet to speak publicly on the sacking of Lord Mandelson. He was meeting his Irish counterpart Micheal Martin at Chequers today
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused the PM of ‘dithering’ over the decision for days
Labour MP Kim Johnson told Sky News that ‘trust is eroding’ and Sir Keir did not seem to be putting country over party.
‘Mandelson has been sacked yet he still holds the whip. I think he should be removed from the Lords,’ she said.
‘Some of my colleagues lost the whip for supporting children in poverty and disabled people. He should lose the whip.’
Fielding media question for the government this morning, Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander acknowledged that the premier had made a ‘judgment’ on bringing in an ‘unconventional’ ambassador to deal with Mr Trump.
He also admitted that Labour MPs were ‘despondent’ after a dire first fortnight back from the summer break.
Asked if Sir Keir still has confidence in Mr McSweeney, the PM’s spokesman said: ‘Of course the Prime Minister has confidence in his top team and they are getting on with the important work of this Government.’
The sense of crisis is building around the government just days before the State Visit by Donald Trump.
The PM has been at Chequers meeting his Irish counterpart Micheal Martin today.
Sir Keir voiced ‘full confidence’ in Lord Mandelson less than 24 hours before he fired him, and a week ago he rushed through a panicky reshuffle in the wake of Angela Rayner resigning over her tax affairs.
It caps a disastrous start to ‘Phase Two’ of the Labour government, which the PM said would be focused on ‘delivery, delivery, delivery’ after the party’s difficult first year.
Labour MPs branded Sir Keir’s handling of the episode a ‘shambles’. And Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused the PM of ‘dithering’ over the decision for days and said there were now ‘serious questions over what Starmer knew and when’.
‘Keir Starmer’s in office, but not in power,’ she said. ‘Britain can’t afford him and this government in crisis.’
Nigel Farage suggested Sir Keir ‘ignored the warnings’ about Lord Mandelson and took ‘quite a long time’ to act.
No10 angrily denied reports that Sir Keir overruled advice from the security services warning against appointing Lord Mandelson to such a high-profile and sensitive role.
But Whitehall sources told the Mail that senior figures in the Foreign Office ‘advised against the appointment’ before it was announced in December last year.
Downing Street has faced cross-party calls for an inquiry into the episode, including the publication of all documents surrounding Lord Mandelson’s vetting.
Allies of the peer have been making clear he was open about the extent of his friendship with Epstein, a link he has stated he now regrets. However, it is understood he did not have access to the emails because they were in an old account.
After the sacking, Labour backbencher Charlotte Nichols said: ‘Not immediate enough unfortunately, as he should never have been appointed in the first place.’
A Labour insider said: ‘Morgan insisted on appointing him – he’s his political hero and mentor. No one else in Cabinet wanted Mandelson – the PM doesn’t even like him – but Morgan was very insistent. This week he’s been pushing to defend him, even though everyone could see it was over.’
The Mail has revealed that Mr McSweeney was personally warned against the appointment because Lord Mandelson’s links to Epstein would cause embarrassment in the United States.
One Labour MP branded the handling of the episode a ‘shambles’, adding: ‘Everyone could see Mandelson was going to have to go – you can’t have an ambassador who says he’s ‘best pals’ with a paedophile. No one could believe the PM backed him so hard.
‘It just looks like amateur hour every day. It was the same with Angie [Rayner] last week – he backed her when he knew there was a problem and then had to get rid of her. Someone needs to get a grip – and fast.’
Left-wing activist Neal Lawson, who is on the council for the new Andy Burnham-backed Mainstream pressure group, attacked the ‘Morgan Tendency’ in Labour.
‘The cuckoos are in the nest, not just of Labour but of the country,’ he wrote in an article for PoliticsHome.
‘And the only person who will benefit from it is Nigel Farage. For the sake of Labour, of progressive politics in our country, this must end.
‘Labour needs be returned to being a party that respects and benefits all voices. Starmer said he would put country before party.
‘The awful truth, and why the government is failing so badly, is the reality of faction before party, before country.’
In another setback, Ed Balls has admitted his wife Yvette Cooper was ‘frustrated’ about being moved from the Home Office to become Foreign Secretary in the reshuffle.
Labour MPs reacted angrily to the meltdown over Lord Mandelson
Mr Alexander told BBC Breakfast: ‘Many of us were devastated by Angela Rayner’s departure from the Government last week.
‘She’s an extraordinary woman who’s overcome the most extraordinary challenges and we are grieving and feel quite acutely that sense of loss.
‘Now to have the dismissal of Peter Mandelson just the next week, I totally get it, of course Labour MPs will be despondent that in two weeks in a row we have seen significant resignations from public service.
‘These are not the headlines any of us in Government or in Parliament would have chosen or wanted. But the fact is when the evidence emerged, action had to be taken and we are looking forward, therefore, to moving on.’
Mr Alexander said ‘nothing justifies Peter Mandelson’s appointment in light of what has now emerged and our thoughts have to be with everyone affected by Jeffrey Epstein’s heinous crimes’.
‘But the reality is, in the last couple of days Peter Mandelson was in the White House with Donald Trump,’ he said.
‘The reality is the United Kingdom did the first trade deal of any government with the Trump administration. And the reality is, along with Peter Mandelson, the Prime Minister Keir Starmer has established a strong and important relationship with President Trump in the interests of the United Kingdom.’
Speaking on Sky News, Mr Alexander said: ‘The reason he was appointed was a judgment, a judgment that given the depth of his experience as a former trade commissioner for the European Union, his long experience in politics, and his politics and doing politics at the highest international levels, he could do a job for the United Kingdom.
‘We knew this was an unconventional presidential administration and that was the basis on which there was a judgment that we needed an unconventional ambassador.’
