London — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer On Monday, they will try to overcome the crisis due to which power is slipping from their grip.
Starmer will face a barrage of questions in parliament when he stands up to explain why peter mandelsonA disgraced politician and friend Jeffrey EpsteinDespite this, he became Britain’s ambassador to Washington fail security check – and seemingly without informing Starmer of the concerns.
The revelations have angered opponents calling for Starmer to resign and uneasy allies wondering what else the country’s leader doesn’t know.
Starmer repeatedly told MPs that “due process” was followed when Mandelson was appointed. He now says he is “angry” because he was not informed that a thorough investigation process had recommended Mandelson not be given security clearance. The Foreign Office, which oversees diplomatic appointments, approved them anyway.
Starmer fired the department’s top civil servant Ollie Robbins within hours of The Guardian’s revelations last week. But Robbins’s aides say he would never be able to share sensitive investigative information with the prime minister.
Robins is expected to give his version of events to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.
All main opposition parties have called on Starmer to resign. Kemi Badenoch, leader of the center-right Conservative Party, said in the Mail on Sunday that he had “misled the parliament over Mandelson, misled the country and is fooling the public.”
Ed Davey, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats, said Starmer had shown “disastrous bad judgment.”
Senior government aides have defended the Prime Minister. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said that if Starmer had known about the failed security check, “he would never have appointed her ambassador.”
But MPs from Starmer’s centre-left Labor Party, already concerned about the party’s poor poll ratings, are uneasy. Starmer has already done defused a potential crisis In February, when some Labor MPs urged him to resign over Mandelson’s appointment.
He may face a new challenge as, as expected, Labor will face a tough fight in local and regional elections on 7 May, giving voters the chance to pass a mid-term verdict on the government.
Critics say Mandelson’s appointment is further evidence of a failure of judgment by a prime minister taking wrong steps again and again Since he led Labor towards a landslide election victory In July 2024. Starmer has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, reparations dilapidated public services and to reduce the cost of living, and has been forced to take repeated policy U-turns.
He chose Mandelson for one of Britain’s most important diplomatic jobs, despite his staff warning him that Mandelson was friends with Epstein. Died in prison in 2019Exposed the government to “reputational risk”.
Mandelson’s trade relations with Russia and China also raised alarm bells. But his expertise as a former EU trade chief and contacts among the global elite were considered assets in dealing with President Donald Trump’s administration.
He stayed in the job for less than nine months. Starmer fired mandelson in September 2025 after evidence emerged that she lied about the extent of her relationship with Epstein.
Epstein-related document repository Emails released by the US Justice Department in January suggested that Mandelson passed sensitive, and potentially market-motivated, government information to Epstein in 2009 following the global financial crisis.
British police launched a criminal investigation and Mendelson arrested In February on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Mandelson has previously denied wrongdoing not charged. He is not accused of sexual misconduct.
