Labour MP says Starmer not ‘up to the job’ as Mandelson backlash grows

Labour MP Clive Lewis has said Sir Keir Starmer “doesn’t seem up to the job” as anger grows over Peter Mandelson’s appointment as an ambassador and the handling of his sacking.

Mandelson was fired over links to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The men’s friendship had been known about at the time of his appointment but No 10 said new information about their relationship only came to light this week.

Lewis, an outspoken voice on the Labour left, told the Radio 4’s Week in Westminster: “It feels that he [the prime minister] has lost control within the first year”.

Minister Douglas Alexander said the PM had “acted quickly” on Mandelson and the government was looking forward “to moving on”.

Lewis said there was “a very, very dangerous atmosphere” among Labour MPs adding: “People are concerned, slightly downtrodden, a little bit browbeaten and feeling as if the party has seen better days”.

The Norwich South MP said the thought of Reform UK leading in the polls “terrifies me, it terrifies my constituents and it terrifies a lot of people in this country… we don’t have the luxury of carrying on this way”.

Labour MP Paula Barker said Mandelson’s appointment as the ambassador to the US was “an absolute betrayal” of Labour’s promise to raise standards.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live’s Matt Chorley, she said: “My colleagues, who represent their constituents every single day, diligently, and stood up against welfare cuts, some of those were suspended for doing the right thing, for standing up for their constituents.

“Yet we have a man like Mandelson, who is just basically allowed to get away with this – I just think it’s absolutely disgusting, quite frankly.”

She said there needed to be “significant changes… because we are failing our country.”

Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander acknowledged Labour MPs will be feeling “despondent” following a chaotic week which has seen the sacking of Lord Mandelson and the resignation of Angela Rayner.

“These are not the headlines any of us in government or in Parliament would have chosen or wanted.”

Labour MPs have been privately and publicly expressing their frustration with the party leadership – with some directing their anger towards the prime minister’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney.

A government minister said they were “starting to wonder how sustainable it is” for McSweeney to stay in post.

Several senior Labour figures claimed McSweeney had been resisting the inevitability of Mandelson’s departure on Wednesday, with one insider describing “cold, hard fury” amongst those in Downing Street about the episode.

However, another senior No 10 source claimed this was nonsense, saying that by Wednesday afternoon McSweeney was adamant that Mandelson’s position was untenable.

They also disputed the idea he was behind the original appointment, saying putting the decision down to an individual was wrong.

A Labour MP told the BBC: “Panic has started to set in”, urging the prime minister to “get a grip” and warning that only publishing correspondence between No 10, McSweeney and Lord Mandelson before his appointment as ambassador would “put this to bed”.

Asked if Sir Keir Starmer had confidence in McSweeney, the PM’s spokesperson said “the prime minister has confidence in his top team and they are getting on with the important work of this government.”

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, speaking from Kyiv, later said the decision to sack Lord Mandelson had been “rightly taken”.

Asked why he had been appointed in the first place and whether it called the prime minister’s judgment into question, she said: “Well, as we set out yesterday, the decision was taken because new information came to light that wasn’t available at the time of the appointment.”

Conservative frontbencher Alex Burghart said his party would force a vote in Parliament to release the documents that the prime minister and the foreign secretary were shown before appointing Lord Mandelson.

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesperson Calum Miller said that “to avoid further national embarrassment” Mandelson’s successor should take questions from the foreign affairs committee before having their appointment confirmed.

Chair of the committee Dame Emily Thornberry has written to the foreign secretary to ask if security concerns about Mandelson were raised during the appointment process and how the Foreign Office responded to those concerns.

Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage said Lord Mandelson was “an enormously talented bloke” but his appointment “was a serious misjudgement from the prime minister.”

Lord Mandelson’s association with Epstein was publicly known when he was given the Washington job.

However, at the start of the week, US lawmakers published documents from Epstein’s estate including 2003 birthday messages from Mandelson in which he refers to Epstein as “my best pal”.

On Wednesday, Sir Keir said he had confidence in Lord Mandelson and insisted “due process” had been followed in his appointment.

But the following day he decided to sack his ambassador.

It came after a series of emails from Lord Mandelson to Epstein were published by the Sun and Bloomberg.

The emails included supportive messages Mandelson sent after Epstein had pleaded guilt to soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008.

In one message, Mandelson is reported to have told Epstein to “fight for early release” and, the day before began his sentence, “I think the world of you.”

The BBC has been told the information published on Wednesday evening was not available to those in government when Lord Mandelson was appointed, as they came from what has been described as a “long closed” email address.

James Roscoe, the deputy head of the Washington embassy, has been appointed as interim ambassador ahead of the US President’s state visit to the UK next week.

Additional reporting by political correspondents Nick Eardley and Georgia Roberts

You can listen to the full interview with Clive Lewis on BBC Radio 4’s The Week in Westminster at 1100 BST on Saturday 13 September and after that on BBC Sounds