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”.
