Sir Keir Starmer has been made to look “weak, naive and gullible” by blaming Peter Mandelson’s “lies” for the crisis engulfing his premiership – and it could bring him down, a senior Labour figure has said.
The party’s former deputy leader Baroness Harman told Sky’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast the saga had become “so serious” for the prime minister, who will be toppled “unless he takes action”.
Sir Keir is under mounting pressure to shake up his Number 10 operation in light of the scandal. Some Labour MPs believe his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, must go.
Speaking to Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby, Baroness Harman said he should be “thinking about a real reset” inside his team, and reflecting on why he appointed Lord Mandelson as the UK’s US ambassador despite concerns about his record and ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Sir Keir used a speech in Hastings on Thursday to apologise to Epstein’s victims for believing the peer’s “lies” about his relationship with the paedophile financier.
But Baroness Harman said: “He’s got to stop blaming Mandelson and saying, ‘he lied to me’. Because, actually, he should never have been considering him in the first place.
“To say ‘he lied to me’ makes it look weak and naive and gullible. So it’s just completely the wrong thing.”
“Peter Mandelson was called the Prince of Darkness,” she added. “It’s not a secret that he was a bad person.
“I think that it is very, very serious for Keir Starmer because it goes to the values of the government.”
Rigby has said the scandal has left the prime minister “fighting for his political life”.
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Lord Mandelson had been a senior figure within New Labour under Tony Blair, but was forced to resign from two ministerial posts in scandal. He was hired by Sir Keir in early 2025 as the prime minister sought to develop positive relations with the Trump administration.
He was sacked in September after he featured in a number of Epstein-related files and photos released by a US Congressional committee. The latest revelations were revealed among a tranche of three million documents released by the US Department of Justice last week.
Documents relating to his appointment to the Washington job will be published by the government after MPs passed a Conservative motion on Wednesday night.
But files deemed a risk to national security or international relations must first be reviewed by parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, which has said there is “no timetable” for how long it might take.
Their publication may be further delayed by a criminal investigation into Lord Mandelson, over claims he leaked market sensitive information to Epstein.
MPs express lack of confidence in PM
In the meantime, Sir Keir has suggested top adviser Mr McSweeney is safe in his post – and that any Labour MPs contributing to speculation about his own leadership are only helping the party’s opponents.
Every minute not spent talking about the cost of living and fighting against the “toxic division of Reform” is a minute wasted, the prime minister said on Thursday.
But many Labour MPs have privately expressed a lack of confidence in Sir Keir’s team, and a handful, including former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and Barry Gardiner, have publicly suggested he should consider his position.
Veteran Labour backbencher Graham Stringer told Sky’s chief political correspondent Jon Craig he does not think Sir Keir has “a very long future” as PM, calling the climbdown over the Lord Mandelson documents a “fiasco too far”.
“You always blame the person at the top, the prime minister,” Mr Stringer said.
“He got his tone wrong. He got the details wrong. And effectively the first amendment that he put down, which he had to change, was effectively – although not in name but in reality – a vote of no confidence in him.
“I don’t think he’s [Sir Keir] got a very long future.
“The discussion you could ask virtually any Labour MP is, it’s when and who, not whether [the PM goes].”
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The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have called for a vote of confidence in the prime minister.
Speaking to Sky’s political correspondent Rob Powell, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch accused the PM of a “catastrophic error of judgement” and said either Sir Keir or Mr McSweeney should take responsibility.
Asked if that means that one of them should resign, Ms Badenoch replied: “Yes”.
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Public in favour of change
New data from pollster YouGov suggests the public are in favour of a change, with 50% of Britons believing the PM would be best standing down.
Slightly less than a quarter – 24% – want him to remain in post, while 26% said they didn’t know what he should do.
YouGov’s Peter English told Sky News the Lord Mandelson story had “cut through” to the public.
It follows a YouGov poll earlier this week that found 95% of Brits were aware of the story, and that 44% of those surveyed were following it closely.
Mr English said: “This [the Mandelson story] is dominating the news cycle. People are paying attention. And the Mandelson thing specifically, it is definitely cutting through.”
However, Mr English added that the story is “probably not going to change too many minds… one-off stories rarely do change minds”.
Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister, and Health Secretary Wes Streeting are widely seen as the most likely candidates to replace Sir Keir.
However, allies of both insist they have no intention of moving against the PM.
