Keir Starmer is on thin ice after surviving a bruising Commons vote on whether he misled parliament over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador. Almost all Labour MPs backed the prime minister in the vote, but a growing sense of unease in Westminster suggests he is on borrowed time. “He’s in last chance saloon,” one minister said after Tuesday’s proceedings.
The crisis was triggered by Guardian reporting that Mandelson, a friend of convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, failed security vetting during the appointment process. Starmer denies any prior knowledge of the failed vetting, insisting he would never have appointed Mandelson had he known. However, opposition leaders Kemi Badenoch and Ed Davey accused him of a “cover-up” during heated exchanges in parliament.
Next week’s local and parliamentary elections are expected to deliver heavy losses for Labour, with Starmer among the most unpopular prime ministers since records began. “Labour MPs are very depressed,” said the Guardian’s policy editor Kiran Stacey. “They have mostly decided that they can’t go into the next election with him as their leader and would like somebody else to do the job by then. What they can’t decide is how they should get rid of him, when, and who should replace him.”
The political turmoil comes amid a warning from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research that Britain faces a £35bn economic hit and the risk of recession this year due to fallout from the Iran war. The chair of NatWest also faced protests at its annual shareholder meeting over accusations of “climate backtracking”.
Less than two years after his landslide 2024 election victory, Starmer’s grip on power appears increasingly fragile. With morale sinking and senior figures signalling unease, the prime minister’s survival into July – his second anniversary – is far from assured.
