Andy McDonald, a shadow cabinet minister under Jeremy Corbyn and under Starmer until 2021, said Peter Mandelson ‘should go immediately’
Good morning. Keir Starmer knew that Peter Mandelson had had a long and close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein when he appointed him ambassador to Washingon. He also knew that Mandelson has been a scandal magnet for most of his career. But he was not appointing him archbishop of Canterbury. He calculated that Mandelson would be the right person to forge a good relationship with the plutocrat narcissist now running America (also an old friend of Epstein’s), and by all accounts Mandelson has done this very successfully.
But, as Rowena Mason reports in her overnight story, Starmer is now under pressure to ditch the ambassador because new revelations about his relationship with Epstein have made it increasingly hard to defend – not least because Mandelson continued to support him in private even after he was facing charges for child sex offences.
[Mandelson] should go immediately. His position is completely and utterly untenable and him staying on in post is causing the government and the Labour party further damage. I’m afraid if he doesn’t do the right thing and resign today then the prime minister should sack him …
Angela Rayner did the right thing. She was under pressure for an inadvertent failure to pay tax. This is of a completely different scale. This speaks about morality and judgement, and Peter Mandelson’s position just is totally untenable, and he needs to act and take responsibility for his failures and withdraw from the political scene immediately.
It’s 100%. People have got their heads in their hands over this and I haven’t spoken to anybody who is offering any glimmer of support for Peter Mandelson. It is widespread revulsion that we, by association, being in the same party, are being brought under the microscope for something that he has done.
He’s got to take responsibility for his actions and bring this to a close.
There’s got to be a moral compass. There are women who have been so fundamentally damaged by the behaviour of Epstein and his associates, and, in honour of them, we’ve got to put down a marker and say this is wholly and utterly unacceptable.
And the consequences that flow from somebody having to fall on their sword will be the consequences, and we will deal with it.
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Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/sep/11/peter-mandelson-keir-starmer-deputy-labour-leader-uk-politics-latest-news
Author : Andrew Sparrow
Publish date : 2025-09-11 07:51:00
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