Starmer Faces Calls to Quit as Allies Rally Over Mandelson Appointment

Senior ministers rallied around Keir Starmer as pressure mounted for him to resign over his decision to make Peter Mandelson ambassador to the United States, despite Mandelson’s close ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Anas Sarwar, leader of Scottish Labour, became the most senior Labour figure to call on Mr.

Starmer to quit, saying, "I have to be honest about failure wherever I see it." Angela Rayner said the prime minister had "my full support," Wes Streeting said he did not think Mr. Starmer needed to resign, and John Healey and Rachel Reeves expressed loyalty. Mr.

Starmer had fired Mr. Mandelson from the diplomatic post in September after new information about his contacts with Mr. Epstein. Thousands of pages of emails released in the latest tranche of Epstein files showed a much closer friendship and suggested that Mr. Mandelson, while in a senior government role in 2009, passed on confidential and market-sensitive information to Mr.

United States

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