LONDON – Downing Street was in meltdown as Keir Starmer lurched into a fresh crisis. On another disastrous day for Labour, he struggled to explain why he kept backing Peter Mandelson, even while officials were urgently investigating new information about the US ambassador’s links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
In a further body blow – as exclusively revealed by Daily Mail columnist Dan Hodges – the prime minister’s (PM) director of strategy was forced to quit over crude messages about Labour veteran Diane Abbott.
The latest departure of another key ally came just two weeks after Sir Keir launched ‘Phase Two’ of his government in a bid to put his dismal first year in office behind him.
Paul Ovenden’s resignation – after the departures of Lord Mandelson and Angela Rayner – means that the PM has now lost three senior figures in controversial circumstances since the relaunch this month.
Last night, some Labour MPs were publicly warning that Sir Keir has just months to save his job. Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch had accused Sir Keir of going ‘into hiding’ since sacking Lord Mandelson as US Ambassador on Thursday – less than 24 hours after backing him to the hilt.
When he finally broke cover on Monday, the PM struggled to explain why he had continued to stand by the disgraced peer even after the government was told that he had urged Epstein to seek early release from jail.
The PM said he was ‘angry’ about an alleged lack of candour from Lord Mandelson, who had been forced to resign from two previous Cabinet roles in the 1990s during a long and chequered political career. He said he now wished he had never appointed Lord Mandelson, who was championed by the PM’s Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney.
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