Scandal could herald the end of Starmer regime

SIR Keir Starmer's career as Prime Minister is dangling by a thread as a result of the Peter Mandelson scandal and he has no one to blame but himself.

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His admission that the security vetting included details of “Mandelson’s ongoing relationship with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein” is shocking. It is incredible the Labour leader knew these facts and appointed him Britain’s ambassador to the United States.

This is a catastrophic error of judgment and Labour MPs believe he is finished.

As one said: “He knew. It is absolutely disgusting. He should be ashamed of himself. It is morally reprehensible.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused him of a “cover-up”.

And now the government is expected to publish the details of how the New Labour veteran was given the top diplomatic post.

Sir Keir’s lack of judgment and scrambled moral compass has been demonstrated in repeated fiascoes, including the scrapping of pensioners’ universal entitlement to winter fuel support, the giveaway of the Chagos Islands and the tax raid on farmers. This latest case is particularly troubling.

Did the Prime Minister fail to appreciate the heinous nature of Epstein’s crimes?

Was he manipulated into appointing a man who had been twice ejected from Parliament?

Does he feel so out of his depth leading the country that he wanted this veteran of the Tony Blair and Gordon Brown administrations on his team?

The victims of Epstein cannot have been at the forefront of his thoughts when he made Mandelson Our Man in DC.

The awful fusion of carelessness and callousness which has defined the Starmer government has come back to bite the PM.

His own MPs will be weighing when and how to tell him it is time to go.