Starmer’s premiership safe, minister says despite growing anger over Mandelson

The political futures of Sir Keir Starmer and his chief of staff are secure, a Cabinet minister has insisted despite growing pressure from Labour MPs furious about the Lord Peter Mandelson scandal.

Steve Reed on Thursday argued Sir Keir was not “at fault” because the disgraced peer “was taken at his word” about his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein before his appointment as UK ambassador to the US.

“You’re only as good as the information you receive,” Mr Reed said as he blamed the vetting process for failing to disprove Lord Mandelson’s claims his relationship with the convicted sex offender “was next to nothing”.

Mr Reed – a Starmer loyalist – insisted Sir Keir and his right-hand man Morgan McSweeney are safe in their jobs, despite backbenchers calling their political judgment into question and demanding Mr McSweeney’s sacking.

Many blame the Prime Minister’s chief of staff for handing his ally Lord Mandelson the top diplomatic job in Washington despite knowing about his dealings to Epstein continued after his conviction for child sex offences.

One Labour MP, speaking to the Press Association anonymously, said Mr McSweeney “needs to go, he’s a total liability and like Mandelson is only interested in himself”.

The MP added: “I think the PM doesn’t have much time left and sadly, he has nobody but himself to blame.”

There is also anger about Downing Street’s attempt to control the release of potentially explosive documents providing insight into how the decision was made.

In the face of a mutiny from Labour MPs – led by former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner – the Government on Wednesday backed down and ceded control to Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee to decide what could be released into the public domain.

Another Labour MP told the Press Association: “Morgan is in charge of strategy.

“I think that is what failed yesterday. It’s not a one off.

“The Prime Minister was elected by the public and we should focus on making him better.”

Paula Barker, Labour deputy chairwoman of the Standards Committee and Privileges Committee, criticised Sir Keir’s “questionable” judgment over the saga but stopped short of calling for him to quit.

On Mr McSweeney, she told the BBC’s Today programme: “There are serious questions to be answered by his (Sir Keir’s) team.

“And certainly, as we know only too well…, when your chief of staff becomes the story, then often it’s time for them to go.”

Housing Secretary Mr Reed defended the Prime Minister on the morning round by arguing he was lied to by Lord Mandelson, who he said “conned everybody”.

The minister added: “What Mandelson did was he made out that his relationship with Epstein was not only over, but had barely existed in the first place.

“He was taken at his word. There was a vetting process to be gone through that threw up nothing that added further concern to what Mandelson was saying, and so the appointment was made on the basis of his experience as the former EU trade commissioner and former UK business secretary.”

Person at fault

Mr Reed also said: “The person at fault here is not the Prime Minister or his team.

“It is Peter Mandelson, who lied, manipulated and deceived everybody.”

The Cabinet minister also pointed the finger at the vetting procedure which he said “will be looked at”.

He added: “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.”

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

The release could be delayed because the Metropolitan Police has asked the Government not to publish documents that would “undermine” the investigation into the peer’s passing of confidential government information to Epstein.