Keir starmer is dead in the water

[Bertiebiscuit]

The UK cannot have a prime minister who gave a plum job to a man when all the time he knew that Mandelson was still close friends with an ex-con who was convicted for trafficking children for sexual abuse. Starmer is destroying the reputation of the UK, he is an embarrassment and shoukd resign, if not the Labour party should demand his resignation.

Not only did Starmer know of Mandelson's ongoing association with the paedophile, he knew two previous Labour pm's had fired him for various inappropriate actions/behaviours. It's not like there were no signs that he would be a complete liability

It is a bit more than association with Epstein, he is totally corrupt.

"Mandelson was often embroiled in controversy, which resulted in him twice resigning from the Cabinet and being dismissed as ambassador in 2025. He bought a home in 1996 partly with an interest-free loan of £373,000 from Geoffrey Robinson, a Cabinet colleague whose business dealings were subject to an inquiry by Mandelson's own department. Mandelson contended that he had deliberately not partaken in any decisions relating to Robinson. He had not declared the loan in the Register of Members' Interests and resigned in December 1998. In January 2001 he again resigned from the government following accusations of using his position to influence a passport application for S. P. Hinduja.
In September 2025 a scandal emerged concerning Mandelson's association with the convicted sex offenders and traffickers Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, which had previously been revealed in 2019. Following the publication of emails between Mandelson and Epstein, he was dismissed by Starmer.[2] In February 2026 there were further reports that Mandelson and his husband had received payments from Epstein, and that in 2009 and 2010 Mandelson allegedly passed government information to Epstein. Mandelson resigned from the Labour Party and from the Lords, and the Metropolitan Police launched a criminal investigation into alleged misconduct in a public office"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Mandelson

Dropping the ball is an honest mistake, poor performance or oversight. This is did far darker. Sustained misconduct, corruption, sleaze, malfeasance, cronyism. PM was probably addicted to his sense of power and self importance. Happy to enable a depraved network of abuse and violence to serve his self interest, feel clever and accumulate a few more millions. I suppose he felt untouchable.

What are you talking about? The Labour Party isn’t left wing and doesn’t have a left wing. It’s not 1970 any more. Mandelson has been driving it from behind for 40 years. It is another party that just exists to serve lobbyists and billionaires.

@Proccy if it walks like a duck...quacks like a duck...

He seems to have been excused from all this because he was known as this Munchkin dark prince.
So that's ok.

I cant understand why that's ok in the first place ? I remember people in here saying it was a stroke of genius.

@Skinnysaluki cosying up to their rich buddies it certainly seems that way

Yep and the McSweeney answer was telling. His only part with sincerity. ‘Of course he stays he got me in power.’

Be serious please.

A significant number of the back benches are on the left. Look at what they achieved on the welfare reform u turn last year.

The UK cannot have a prime minister who gave a plum job to a man when all the time he knew that Mandelson was still close friends with an ex-con who was convicted for trafficking children for sexual abuse.

Ok, Kemi, get your facts right. Mandelson was appointed Ambassador in Feb 2025. Jeffrey Epstein died in 2020! So they were not ‘still close friends’.

I absolutely believe Starmer has questions to answer on how much he knew about Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein, but your lies do not help the matter.

What do you object to?

Mandelson has rightly been fired as Ambassador.
Mandelson has rightly resigned from the House of Lords.
Starmer has said the files will all be released, which takes the wind out of the Tory sails.

What do you think should have happened?

Read the room, springs to mind.

The media is almost universal in their condemnation of our hapless PM.

He’s a reverse Midas - zero political nous or judgement.

The country’s reputation was fucked anyway. This prick is just putting the rubber stamp on it.

The BBC have launched one their live new feeds so they are expecting something significant to happen today.

I like the name change!

Cons never pushed through Welfare Reform either, are they Left wing too??

Labour aren't left wing and a stronger PM would have pushed through the reforms, Starmer is weak and seeks all views before making a decision... sometimes a leader has to lead and get on with what they believe in.

Burnham would wreck Bond Markets? really? he isn't even an MP, possibly one of KS's better decisions, so cannot be PM.....

You're slipping!

Here she is!

Who are you rooting for as Starmer’s replacement?

Using that Labour tactic of Kemi or whoever isn’t going to do it on this one. Even the Guardian think it’s over for him.

There’s no way KS knew that. It’s not the sort of thing PM would tell anyone at Westminster. Which isn’t to say this decision wasn’t appalling.

I suspect that there was a feeling that only PM could handle Trump, and desperate times called for desperate measures. The one bright spot in PM’s career was during the NI peace process where he managed to sweet talk Ian Paisley Snr into coming on board. I imagine there was a hope he’d do something similar.

He is dead in the water - not just over the Mandleson issue but because this is just the latest in a long line of poor judgement decisions.

I'm more interested in who will replace him. So will it be Wes Streeting? Shabana Mahmood?

Angela Raynor is tarnished and Andy Burnham currently blocked.

How is it a ‘Labour’ tactic? I didn’t even vote for Labour!

This will blow over when the next scandal hits in 2 days time.

"But sadly the point that Britain has pissed away its right to lecture is valid."
"So when the UK criticize another state's freedom of speech or military interventions, they might just roll their eyes"

Have you ever found yourself having an argument in an empty room?

Angry much?

You speak as someone who has felt rejected by the UK in some way?

It wasn't mere association. Mandelson gave insider information to Epstein to help him make money.

There is no way he would have been appointed as ambassador if that had been known. Unless we now also expect Prime Ministers to be psychic.

I agree, i posted last year he had to go asap.

Started with expenses, not against the rules but v poor practice, then WFA, Farm IHT, many might liked to pin on Reeves but the buck stops....

Him backing McSweeney was, for him personally, one of his worse decisions.

If Rayner doesn't get a fine from HMRC.. maybe, Mahmood has failed on boats.... Streeting? a firm favourite ....

...but as an outsider i'd pick Lucy Powell...

I agree, i posted last year he had to go asap.

And you’ll likely be posting the same thing next year.

It's all about Trump.

We had a formidable US ambassador in Karen Pierce, but she is a woman. So, they picked PeterM because he is well versed in cosying up to the world's worst misogynists.

If you hadn't realised it already, Labour don't respect women, and don't care if our daughters are abused.