Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has accused Sir Keir Starmer of “lying to the whole country” about what he knew of Lord Mandelson’s links to Jeffrey Epstein, as pressure grows on the Prime Minister over his handling of the scandal.
Lord Mandelson was sacked as the UK’s ambassador to the United States on Thursday morning after leaked emails revealed a closer relationship with Epstein, the convicted paedophile financier, than had previously been admitted.
The messages, some dating back to 2008, included Mandelson urging Epstein to seek early release from prison and expressing deep personal support.
Downing Street has insisted Starmer was not aware of the material until Wednesday evening, when the emails were published by media outlets. However, both the Foreign Office and No 10 officials had received a cache of the correspondence as early as Tuesday, raising questions about why the Prime Minister defended Mandelson at Prime Minister’s Questions the following day.
Mrs Badenoch said:
“If No 10 had those emails for 48 hours before acting, it means [Sir Keir] lied at PMQs and ministers lied again about new additional information. These are yet more errors of judgment. The Prime Minister has very serious questions to answer. The only way to clear this up is full transparency about who knew what, and when.”
Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, has come under intense scrutiny from Labour MPs for his role in the affair. Reports suggest he pushed strongly for Mandelson’s appointment despite concerns, and was the last senior adviser resisting calls for his dismissal.
Olivia Blake, Labour MP for Sheffield Hallam, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the episode reflected “deep failings” in communication within No 10.
“Any operation that fails to tell a prime minister when something as substantial as those emails are presented to them clearly has deep failings,” she said.
Other Labour figures were equally critical. Barry Gardiner, a former frontbencher, told Newsnight:
“The Prime Minister needs to make sure he has people around him who are prepared to tell him what is actually going on and not simply what they want to tell him.”
On the party’s left, Clive Lewis MP went further, becoming the first Labour MP to call for Starmer to resign. He told the BBC’s The Week in Westminster:
“You see a Labour Prime Minister who feels that he’s lost control within the first year. We don’t have the luxury of carrying on this way with someone who… just doesn’t seem up to the job.”
Meanwhile, the Foreign Affairs Committee chair, Emily Thornberry, has written to Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper demanding details of the vetting process that led to Mandelson’s appointment.
The emails, first published by Bloomberg and The Sun, included one in which Mandelson described Epstein as his “best pal” and said he “felt hopeless and furious” about the financier’s imprisonment. Documents released this week in the US also revealed Epstein paid for Mandelson’s travel twice in 2003, totalling more than $7,400 (£5,400).
In a statement after his dismissal, Mandelson said being Britain’s ambassador in Washington had been “the privilege of my life”. He expressed regret over his association with Epstein, saying he had “taken at face value the lies that he fed me and many others”.
The controversy leaves the UK without a permanent ambassador in Washington days before Donald Trump’s state visit.
Downing Street has rejected claims of a leadership crisis, insisting the Prime Minister retains “full confidence” in his senior team.
“But we’ve heard that before haven’t we?” a former Conservative MP told the Post.
