A growing number of voices across Britain’s political left are calling for Labour leader and Prime Minister Keir Starmer to resign amid mounting controversy over his close political ties to Peter Mandelson.
Mr. Mandelson, now known as Lord Mandelson, was a senior Labour Party figure whose name appears in documents released in connection with investigations into convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein released this month by the Justice Department.
Mr. At issue is not only Mandelson’s appearance in the so-called Epstein files, but Mr. Starmer’s decision to appoint him British ambassador to the United States in 2024 — a role that places him at the center of the U.K.’s most important diplomatic relationship with its longtime ally.
“The distraction has to end, and the leadership in Downing Street has to change,” said Anas Sarwar, the head of the Scottish wing of the Labour Party, during a special press conference in Glasgow Monday.
The Independent, a British newspaper, reported that Welsh Labour leader Eluned Morgan, another ally of the prime minister, will also call for his resignatikon in a press conference later Monday. With Labour trailing in the polls ahead of elections scheduled for May, Labour Party members told The Washington Times that such posturing may be tactical.
“The intervention from Anas Sarwar is of colossal significance — the most senior Labour figure yet, by some margin, to call for Starmer to go,” said BBC Political Editor Chris Mason in a post on the outlet’s website today, “It is now prompting a stream of cabinet ministers to go on social media and stand up for the prime minister — after rather a while with a lot of them remaining publicly silent.”
Mr. Starmer appointed Lord Mandelson as the British ambassador to the United States in 2024. Documents released as part of the Epstein files suggest that Lord Mandelson lobbied the British government to change tax policy regarding bankers’ bonuses in 2009 at the behest of Mr. Epstein. At the time, Lord Mandelson was a member of the British Parliament.
Mr. Epstein had previously sent Lord Mandelson the equivalent of $75,000, according to documents released by the Department of Justice as part of a general release of millions of records tied to the investigation into Mr. Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while in prison.
Lord Mandelson has said he has “no record or recollection” of the payments which occurred in 2003 and 2004.
The Economist, a British magazine, has called the Mandelson affair Britain’s worst political scandal of this century, and Lord Mandelson resigned his Labour Party membership on the first of this month under pressure from the party.
Mr. Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigned his post over the weekend, followed Monday by the prime minister’s director of communications, Tim Allan.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and other members of Mr. Starmer’s cabinet have tried to quell such calls and expressed public support for the prime minister to complete his five-year term.
After 14 years in the political wilderness, the Labour Party returned to power following a July 2024 general election victory. The election also signaled further fragmentation of the U.K. electorate, with the populist right-wing Reform Party entering Parliament for the first time. Meanwhile, far-left opponents of Mr. Starmer, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, entered Parliament as independents. The far-left of the British Labour Party continues to be referred to as “Corbynites.”
“The Labour right wing epitomizes everything that is wrong with a system built on patronage and revolving-door lobbying interests,” said Claude Webb, a longtime supporter of Mr. Corbyn, in an interview with The Washington Times. “The Mandelson debacle demonstrates this precisely, and it is therefore right for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to resign.”
Ms. Webb served as a member of Parliament from 2019 to 2024, first as a Labour Party member and later as an independent. A senior Labour Member of Parliament, who spoke to The Washington Times on condition of anonymity, said it was unlikely Mr. Starmer would be forced to resign over his ties to Lord Mandelson.
On May 7, millions across the United Kingdom will go to the polls both in elections to the Scottish and Welsh parliaments as well as local elections.
“There is clearly broad concern about his ties to Lord Mandelson, but for the Labour Party generally, his resignation would be a nightmare with important elections looming in May,” the lawmaker said. “After May, though, the knives from within the party will be out for him.”
Any replacement of Mr. Starmer from within the Labour Party would likely come from further to the political left — a prospect that has rattled financial markets.
The yield on 10-year U.K. government debt rose 0.07 percentage points to 4.597%, matching a two-and-a-half-month high set last week. The yield on 30-year bonds also increased. The British pound dropped by roughly half a euro cent against the euro but was trading slightly higher against the U.S. dollar today.
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