Troubled Starmer ‘reeks of defeat’ after Mandelson fiasco

An already fractious party, with MPs furious about everything from the handling of Gaza and the welfare rebellion to the departure of Angela Rayner and subsequent reshuffle, came to boiling point last week over Starmer’s handling of the scandal surrounding Peter Mandelson.

Starmer and his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, are being dogged by questions about when the prime minister learned the details of a cache of emails published by Bloomberg, in which Lord Mandelson expressed support for the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

McSweeney, already being blamed for much of Labour’s decline in the polls, is facing questions about whether he ensured that Starmer was fully briefed about the emails when he defended his ambassador at Prime Minister’s Questions last Wednesday, only to fire him the following morning.

Downing Street told The Observer that Mandelson had not “accurately characterised” the relationship. But one minister said there was “lots and lots of anger” over Mandelson and Epstein, particularly given the party pledged to halve violence against women and girls in its campaign manifesto. “It’s like Boris 2.0,” they added.

Another member of the government said trust between No 10 and the parliamentary Labour party was at an all-time low, partly as a result of a reshuffle in which MPs with personal links to No 10 – including McSweeney’s wife Imogen Walker – have been parachuted into the whips office. “They have turned it into a Politburo, rather than a listening exercise,” they said.

Backbenchers and ministers believe the prime minister is also at risk, suggesting Starmer’s crisis point would be a potential collapse against Reform in next May’s local elections. One Labour MP said the prime minister “reeks of defeat”, adding: “The absolute expiry date is May. But it could be the budget if that unravels in a spectacular way – and party conference is going to be an absolute nightmare.”

Against this backdrop, the deputy leadership contest to replace Rayner is now underway with education secretary Bridget Phillipson battling it out against recently sacked minister Lucy Powell. With Rayner on the backbenches and Wes Streeting disliked by the left of the party, Phillipson is increasingly seen as a potential leadership contender.

But the contest poses another potential challenge for Starmer, with many sources seeing Powell as a stalking horse candidate for Andy Burnham, a former minister and currently the mayor of Greater Manchester.

Sources told The Observer that colleagues within the parliamentary party are exploring how to bring Burnham back as an MP by getting him to stand in a possible byelection. But others said they did not believe the situation would last long enough for Burnham’s return. “The PM’s authority is shot,” said another minister. [Burnham] isn’t a serious [prospect] until he has a seat and things could move faster than he can do that.”

Photograph by Getty