Furious Labour MPs believe Sir Keir Starmer is “toast” over his handling of the Lord Mandelson scandal despite his apology to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims. Both critics and loyalists have effectively called time on the Prime Minister’s leadership, with several sources describing the mood among the Parliamentary Labour Party as incandescent.
They repeated their assertion that it was “the beginning of the end” of his time in charge and are privately discussing who should replace him. The i Paper reported that Angela Rayner is “back in the game” as the de facto leadership race unfolds.
Starmer sought to weather the crisis with a speech in Hastings on Thursday in which he said “sorry for having believed Mandelson’s lies” and for appointing the former Labour peer as UK ambassador to the US. He said he shared the “anger and frustration” of his colleagues about the affair but vowed to continue in his job.
