Sir Keir Starmer has faced calls from within his own Labour Party to step down over the Mandelson scandal. The leader of the Scottish Labour Party demanded that Starmer resign. In 2025, Starmer appointed Lord Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to the United States. Mandelson had served in Labour cabinets during 1997–2007 and had twice been forced to resign over unethical conduct. There are people in the Labour Party who revile Mandelson as a slimeball. The Deputy Prime Minister advised Starmer not to appoint Mandelson.
On 7 May, elections to the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Parliament and English local authorities (i.e. panchayats) are due to take place. The Labour Party is likely to perform abysmally in all three. Labour has won every election in Wales for over a hundred years. Now, it is about to lose to Plaid Cymru, a party that advocates Welsh independence. Labour may even come third in Wales behind Reform UK.
In Scotland, Labour believed it would retake the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish National Party (SNP) has won four elections in a row. In 2025, the SNP was well behind Labour in the polls due to the SNP Government failing in multiple policy areas. However, Labour has been so beset by scandals and incompetence that the SNP has pulled ahead and appears likely to win a record fifth consecutive election.
Labour’s poll ratings are in the doldrums. The governing Labour Party is fourth in most opinion polls, behind Reform UK, the Green Party and the Conservative Party. Starmer’s approval rating is below 50%. Labour is at panic stations. Unless Starmer goes, Labour stands little chance in the next UK General Election, which is due by August 2029 at the latest.
Peter Mandelson is gay and is married to a man; same-sex marriage has been legal in the UK since 2013. He was known to be a friend of Jeffrey Epstein, the American financier who was convicted of a sex crime against a 15-year-old and died in prison while awaiting trial on 10 similar charges.
In February 2025, Starmer announced that he was appointing Peter Mandelson as ambassador. However, Mandelson had not yet undergone Developed Vetting (DV), a process intended to determine whether a person poses a security risk. DV was then conducted on Mandelson, and he reportedly failed. However, Sir Keir Starmer said he had not been informed that Mandelson failed. Mandelson subsequently took up his post in Washington, DC. Peter Mandelson is a sycophant and knows how to flatter Donald J. Trump.
In September 2025, the Epstein Files were published. It emerged that Mandelson’s husband had received payments of GBP 2,000 a month from Jeffrey Epstein in return for no work. It was suspected that this was a disguised bribe to Mandelson in exchange for passing market-sensitive state secrets to Epstein. Mandelson had sided with Epstein against his victim after Epstein’s conviction.
Those considered for appointment to sensitive posts in the United Kingdom undergo Developed Vetting (DV). This includes interviewing the individual for several hours as well as interviewing two referees. DV examines the person’s entire life: every school attended, every job held, no matter how briefly, every address at which the person has lived, every bank account ever held, and every significant relationship, whether romantic or platonic. Applicants are asked whether they have ever had problems with drugs, alcohol, promiscuity, gambling or other forms of compulsive spending. They are also asked whether they have ever suffered from mental illness.
The aim of DV is to determine whether a person constitutes a security risk. Is he or she susceptible to blackmail? Does the person have expensive tastes that might tempt him or her to accept bribes? DV also examines whether there are links to a ‘person of interest’, meaning someone whom the security services monitor as a suspected spy or terrorist.
Furthermore, DV assesses whether the individual is honest. If a person admits to once drinking excessively or even taking illegal drugs, this does not necessarily disqualify him or her, provided the episode was sufficiently long ago and not too serious. Lying, however, results in instant failure. If a person will lie about one matter, he or she may lie about anything.
DV is required for diplomats, military officers, employees of MI5 (domestic intelligence), MI6 (foreign intelligence), and certain civil service posts. DV status is kept under review. If a person who has passed DV later takes illegal drugs or begins a relationship with a person of interest, for example, the clearance can be withdrawn. DV is vital for an ambassador because he or she is privy to a great deal of intelligence. The Ambassador to the United States occupies the UK’s most important diplomatic post.
The intelligence relationship with the United States is crucial because of Five Eyes. Five Eyes is an agreement dating from 1945 under which five countries share intelligence: New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. There are people in the United States who argue that this is an unequal bargain because the US gathers far more intelligence than the others due to its population and enormous resources. The information the United States receives in return is, they argue, insufficient to justify sharing everything. However, Five Eyes is maintained because even a small country such as New Zealand might possess the missing piece of the intelligence jigsaw.
Starmer maintains that he was not informed that Mandelson had failed vetting. He sacked the head of the Foreign Office for not informing him that Mandelson had failed DV. The civil service is furious with Starmer, saying that he unfairly blamed a civil servant.
DV involves highly confidential information. Applicants are required to disclose very private and possibly embarrassing information; therefore, the process remains secret. The reason why Mandelson allegedly failed has not been published. It could have been his financial relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. It could have been his friendship with the Russian aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska. Possibly, it was because he lobbied on behalf of sanctioned Chinese companies.
Many people say that Mandelson should never have been considered for any governmental role, regardless of any DV issues. He was known for ingratiating himself with billionaires and for being extremely avaricious. Oleaginous, creepy and superannuated, he was a man whom many in Labour would rather forget.
Starmer was a barrister and Director of Public Prosecutions before entering politics. He is intelligent, methodical, circumspect and diligent. How, then, was he so injudicious as to appoint Mandelson as Ambassador to Washington, DC?
Starmer will probably resign as leader of Labour the day after the Scottish, Welsh and English local elections and remain as Prime Minister until such time as a replacement can be selected. The Labour Party will take a couple of months to elect a new leader. Starmer will then resign as Prime Minister, and the new Labour leader will be appointed Prime Minister by the King.
The Conservatives were in office for 14 years, from 2010 to 2024. They had five Prime Ministers during that time. Labour denounced the Conservatives for political psychodrama and for changing Prime Ministers too frequently. Starmer intended to serve a full five-year term. However, his ratings are so abysmal, and Labour is facing such catastrophic defeats that his position appears increasingly untenable.