No 10 Under Fire From Labour Ministers And MPs Over Mandelson "Shitshow"
The government sacked Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US days after the first correspondence between him and Jeffrey Epstein were published in media reports (Alamy)
5 min read
Labour ministers and backbench MPs have strongly criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s decision to wait days before sacking Peter Mandelson as US ambassador over his links to Jeffrey Epstein.
Lord Mandelson was sacked on Thursday morning with immediate effect by Starmer, following growing pressure over his links to convicted sex offender Epstein.
In a statement, the foreign office said that emails leaked to the media overnight had shown that "the depth and extent of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment".
However, multiple Labour government ministers have told PoliticsHome they are angry and frustrated with the way that Downing Street has handled the scandal, with the Starmer operation having already faced criticism for its political judgement on multiple occasions since winning power last year.
One minister said: “[Mandelson] should never have been appointed and should have been sacked before PMQs yesterday. It’s another shitshow.
“Any decent politician can spot a problem that is going to have legs, so will act quickly and cut loose.”
Another minister said: "There’s a lot of anger, and people don’t understand how this keeps happening. Bad judgement."
Mandelson's past relationship with Epstein came under growing pressure in recent days when leaked correspondence showed Lord Mandelson referring to Epstein as his "best pal".
Speaking to the YouTube channel Harry Cole Saves The West on Tuesday, the Labour peer described the remarks as "very embarrassing" and said Epstein has been an "albatross around his neck".
Despite this, on Wednesday, Prime Minister Starmer told MPs in the House of Commons he had "confidence" in Lord Mandelson when asked by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.
Further leaked correspondence reported by The Sun and Bloomberg on Wednesday revealed that Mandelson was exchanging emails with Epstein after his conviction for procuring a child for prostitution and for soliciting a prostitute, and that Mandelson had suggested that the conviction was wrongful and should be challenged.
On Thursday, Sky News reported that the security services expressed concern about the appointment of Mandelson as ambassador to Washington in December, but that No 10 went ahead anyway.
Multiple backbench Labour MPs told PoliticsHome there was a deep sense of unhappiness within the Parliamentary Labour Party this week, including among those who consider themselves loyal to No 10. Many MPs felt that the government should have learned from previous scandals involving Mandelson before deciding to appoint him.
Andy McDonald, Labour MP for Middlesbrough & Thornaby East, told PoliticsHome there should be an inquiry into Starmer's original decision late last year to appoint Lord Mandelson as UK ambassador to Washington.
"The question which arises is, was it lack of information, lack of evidence, or lack of judgement which went appallingly wrong?" he said.
Kim Johnson, another MP on the Labour left, said the PM's judgement is "definitely in question".
Jo White, who chairs the Red Wall Group of Labour MPs, directed fury at Lord Mandelson, saying he had "allowed his ego to lead his instincts and has let our country down".
"The Prime Minister did the right thing, but I am angry because Mandelson should have taken that decision for himself," she said.
"He knowingly misled the Prime Minister on the extent and depth of his close relationship with a paedophile and sex trafficker. He allowed his ego to lead his instincts and has let our country down. He should never return to politics after this."
There was dismay and frustration across the Labour benches on Wednesday.
One backbench MP, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “Repeated mistakes are being made by a lack of political awareness at the heart of government...
“Bad judgements have become the norm, and that is devastating to our positive message.”
Another Labour MP told PoliticsHome: “If your defence is saying you didn’t believe the women, you probably shouldn’t be in that job… or any job.”
And a different Labour MP, elected last year, said they were frustrated that the delay before sacking Mandelson would “speak volumes to people in our communities”.
“It reinforces an image of politics, that negative culture… and it has a huge impact on those of us trying to do good work on the back benches and support the government,” they said.
“There is a lot of loyalty in the PLP, and we're all here obviously because we want this to work. But things like this just leave us in a very, very bad position.
“It is incredibly, incredibly frustrating, because we've lost our deputy prime minister [Angela Rayner] last week, we've had a very big reshuffle and we're straight back in this week with this, which in many ways was avoidable.”
They added that they felt “deeply uncomfortable” during PMQs on Wednesday.
Another MP, who is a parliamentary private secretary (PPS), said the sacking “should have happened two days ago”.
They added that many 2024 intake MPs were already annoyed by the ministerial reshuffle last week, with some complaining that jobs were given to Downing Street chief of staff Morgan McSweeney’s preferred people.
Summarising the mood, another PPS said: "What is not clear is what the PM knew and when. That is what is concerning many colleagues.
"Given what’s happened recently with Rayner, there’s a lot of fragility in the mood of Labour MPs. This really has not helped. Only adds to the need to mend relations between No 10 and the PLP. Who’d be a whip?"
However, others have defended the Prime Minister. One backbench MP said that the PM had acted “in the right amount of time” and that the decision had actually come “very fast”.
Additional reporting by Tom Scotson, Harriet Symonds, Adam Payne and Nadine Batchelor-Hunt.
