It’s been a pretty terrible start to the week for the government. Amid mounting revelations from the Epstein files, the police are now probing claims that the former British ambassador Lord Mandelson committed misconduct in public office. Despite Mandy’s links to the disgraced sexual predator being already well-known in late 2024, Keir Starmer nevertheless still chose to appoint him as ‘Our man in Washington’ – a decision he must now bitterly regret…
The embattled PM rocked up in the House yesterday to give an update on his trip to China. But before he got a chance to speak, he had the joy of listening to a point of order about his own legal record. At defence questions, Mark Francois, the Tory spokesman, raised the subject of Starmer’s role in the prosecutions of British Army veterans and his work ‘with disgraced lawyer Phil Shiner to help prosecute them.’ Louise Sandher-Jones, the junior minister, hit back, sneering that ‘I know he is not a details man. I gently remind him that the Prime Minister did not work with that individual or with any organisation, and his role was limited to working with the Law Society on points of law.’
Yet records show that Starmer did in fact represent Hilal al-Jedda in 2007, who was jailed without charge in occupied Iraq for three years on suspicion of terrorist activity. Appellants listed on that case include Starmer and Richard Hermer, on instruction by Public Interest Lawyers – Shiner’s notorious firm. With the PM watching, Francois therefore asked if the government would correct the record. John Healey’s bluster in response said it all. Let’s see if a timely correction is forthcoming…
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