Keir Starmer is losing his own MPs over Mandelson

There is a sulphurous mood in the House of Commons today. Peter Mandelson hangs over Westminster, amid ongoing revelations about his contact with Jeffrey Epstein. At PMQs, Kemi Badenoch gave another impressive performance. She forced Keir Starmer to admit that he knew at the time of Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador that he had remained friends with Epstein after his conviction for child sex offences. That confession changed the narrative from a story about process to a debate around judgement. Angry Labour MPs are now discussing whether Starmer can survive.

Questions about a leader’s authority are par for the course at a time when their party is struggling. The danger for Starmer is that these discussions are no longer just happening in private huddles and closed WhatsApp groups. Instead, the Tory move to force the release of documents relating to Mandelson’s appointment has flushed enraged Labour MPs out into the open. Member after member has stood up in the chamber this afternoon to criticise the government’s effort to block the release of ‘papers prejudicial to UK national security or international relations’. 

Paula Barker (Liverpool Wavertree) said she was ‘ashamed’ of the amendment while Matt Bishop (Forest of Dean) said he would not vote for a ‘cover-up’ to allow the government to ‘mark its own homework’. There was an echo in some of these speeches of the Tory vote in September 2021 to overturn MP Owen Paterson’s suspension by the standards watchdog. Just after 4 p.m. today, the Speaker confirmed to MPs that Downing Street had bowed to the inevitable and caved. The government has decided to defer the sifting of Mandelson papers to the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) – something which Angela Rayner called for shortly after PMQs. Starmer fought to stop the ISC signing this off: his U-turn is a sign of the sense of outrage on his backbenches.

Various words are being used by Labour MPs to describe the current situation – but ‘bad’ is the one that crops up most frequently. ‘The PLP (Parliamentary Labour party) wants Morgan’s head’, says one –  a reference to Starmer’s chief of staff, who is believed to have helped recruit Mandelson. A northern MP references the ongoing Gorton and Denton by-election: ‘We could be talking this week about more “Pride of Place” funding. Now, thanks to him [Starmer] it’s all paedos instead.’ ‘This is the end of days,’ says a third MP. ‘I cannot really see a way out of this for Keir.’

This is a Labour government elected 18 months ago with a majority of 174. Yet to hear accounts of the hushed discussions behind the Speaker’s chair featuring Jonny Reynolds, the chief whip, as he and his Tory counterpart thrashed out a compromise, you would think that we were back in the days of Theresa May’s hung parliament. The fallout from the Mandelson affair – with its toxic mix of sleaze, scandal and impotence – risks bringing down the Prime Minister even before the looming disaster of the May elections.