'Starmer's 'F****d': Labour In Turmoil As Mandelson Saga Threatens To Take Down PM (Again)

Is it really Starmer-geddon this time?

Political Correspondent

Keir Starmer may be seeing red over the latest Peter Mandelson drama but so are Labour MPs.

Three weeks before the May elections – when voters will choose their candidates for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments along with some English councils and mayoralties – the prime minister has been hit with a fresh revelation about the ex-ambassador.

It appears security vetting officials advised against hiring Mandelson last year but the Foreign Office decided to give him the job as the UK’s attaché to Washington anyway.

The prime minister promptly sacked the Foreign Office’s top civil servant Olly Robbins hours after the Guardian broke the story on Thursday night.

Downing Street said neither Starmer nor other government ministers were not aware until this week that Mandelson, former friend to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, had not passed vetting.

Starmer told the press he was “furious” that he had not been told ahead of giving Mandelson the plum post.

Meanwhile, his political opponents have accused Starmer of misleading parliament after he previously told MPs “full due process” was followed with Mandelson.

The Liberal Democrats have also reported the prime minister to ethics adviser Laurie Magnus for failing to notify parliament as soon as he........

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