Prime Minster Keir Starmer. The Guardian/WPA/Getty.
The UK Prime Minster Keir Starmer is fighting for his political life after a new Epstein related scandal. The Guardian. Starmer had appointed Peter Mandelson as the Ambassador to the United States, but did so knowing he had links to Jeffrey Epstein. Starmer and Mandelson said that Mandelson's links to Epstein were limited, but more recent releases of the Epstein files show that Mandelson was a lot closer to Epstein than he claimed, notably getting closer to the man after his 1st conviction for sex crimes. The backlash this caused triggered the resignation of Starmer's top aid and Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeny, who advised Starmer to hire Mandelson. Starmer, already a deeply unpopular Prime Minster due to several scandals and the failure to deal with immigration, has now faced calls for resignation, including from a prominent Scottish Labor politician, Anas Sarwar.
My Comment:
This is a classic case of an own-goal. The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson when he knew for sure that he had major connections with Jeffrey Epstein, including after he was arrested and convicted of sex crimes, was, to be frank, completely idiotic. Epstein has been toxic since the 2016 US presidential race and by 2024, the idea that he should have appointed Mandelson to an extremely important diplomatic role is crazy.
And unlike many of the people named in the Epstein files, there is a possibility that Mandelson did something worse than being friends with Epstein. Supposedly, he received money from Epstein back in the early 2000's. And there is evidence that Epstein was attempting to influence him on tax policy, giving at least the appearance of corruption, and there are even reports that Mandelson sent sensitive data to Epstein. There's also a picture of him in his underwear next to an unidentified woman.
Lord Peter Mandelson. BBC/US Justice Department.
Certainly, the possible corruption and the above picture weren't known to the public before the release of the Epstein files. But the links between the man were widely known and the fact that Mandelson supposedly lied about it doesn't change the fact that hiring him was an obvious mistake. There certainly could have been better people to hire but Starmer hired him anyways.
Will this bring down Starmer? I am not sure. Under normal circumstances with a popular politician this would not be a huge deal. It's certainly a mistake, but it's not a career ending one. Epstein hysteria is pretty rampant, but the fact of the matter is that it is a fringe issue. If this was a normal situation, I would say that nothing more would come from it after the resignation of Morgan McSweeny.
But Starmer was in a political crisis even before this scandal. He has been extremely unpopular, with his approval under 20%. People hate his economic polices, a chaotic cabinet and his utter failure to deal with immigration and the crime committed by immigrants. Indeed, he's gotten the nickname of "Two Tier Keir" for treating right wing native Britons worse than immigrants committing much more serious crimes. Indeed, there was a very good chance that Starmer was on his way out before this happened, he's very unpopular and the only thing that is keeping him in power at this point is that there isn't really anyone in Labor that can replace him.
As for the Epstein files, the release has been a mixed bag. People have gone completely insane about some of the stuff in there, most notably the discredited anonymous tips. Most of those people are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome and won't listen to any explanation about why Trump was obviously not connected to Epstein after he broke ties with the man before his conviction. Trump even helped the investigation into Epstein and he's also the one that released the files in the first place.
But you wouldn't know that if you listened to the left and a few deranged people on the right. They generally don't know the facts of the case and would probably shrug when you talk about this incident, or the folks that actually have been accused of sexual abuse, like Prince Andrew, Marvin Minsky and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson. Indeed, with Minsky and Richardson dead and the main witness against Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre dead, charges simply aren't going to happen. It is pretty certain that the only person left that will be charged in the Epstein case is Lord Mandelson.
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