Keir Starmer couldn't be trusted on Peter Mandelson – why trust him on anything else?

OPINION

So “phase two” of Keir Starmer’s government is now in full swing. We were told this would be a new chapter, a fresh start. But what do we get? Last week his Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, was forced to resign in disgrace over her £40,000 stamp duty dodge. This week, Peter Mandelson — Britain’s most senior diplomat in Washington — is sacked after “disturbing and sickening” emails to Jeffrey Epstein surfaced. This is not the new dawn Starmer promised. It is the same moral rot, the same sleaze, the same contemptible lack of judgement from the Prime Minister.

Let’s look at Mandelson. Here is a man who was not merely acquainted with Epstein, but who, in 2008, after Epstein had already been convicted for soliciting sex from underage girls, continued to cultivate their friendship. The emails are clear. Mandelson urged Epstein to “fight for early release” and assured him: “Your friends stay with you and love you … I think the world of you … I can still barely understand it. It just could not happen in Britain.”

Those words alone are sickening. Mandelson — a Labour grandee, a man entrusted with representing Britain in Washington — was reassuring him of loyalty and love. Why? For what possible reason? Was it sheer opportunism? Self-interest?

Mandelson now says he regrets the friendship. He calls Epstein a “charismatic criminal liar” and insists he was duped by Epstein’s lawyers. He says he should have ended the friendship “far sooner.”

Surely the British public could be forgiven for seeing this less as contrition and more as damage control. This is the calibre of man Starmer appointed as Britain’s voice in the United States.

And Starmer’s response? Predictable, cowardly, shameful. He initially backed Mandelson. After he praised Angela Rayner as a “major figure” even as she was caught red-handed in a property tax row.

Time and again, when faced with wrongdoing in his own ranks, Starmer chooses protection over principle. He shields, excuses, delays. He only acts when the public outcry grows too loud to ignore.

What does it say about a Prime Minister that his reflex is always to defend the indefensible? Why would he stand by Mandelson — a man who described Epstein as his “best pal” in a fawning birthday book — until the evidence was so overwhelming he had no choice but to sack him?

Why would he continue to praise Angela Rayner, who hounded others for their financial failings while concealing her own? The answer seems to be that Starmer is not guided by morals but by expedience.

The Mandelson scandal is not about one man’s disgraceful lapse of judgement. It is about the culture of Labour’s leadership. A culture that excuses hypocrisy, rewards opportunism, and turns a blind eye to missteps so long as it serves political interests.

Britain deserves better. We are a nation built on values of integrity, decency, and fairness. Yet we are governed by people who sneer at these very principles. Westminster has become a swamp in which only the most slippery survive.

Starmer’s “phase two” is nothing more than phase one with new wallpaper. The same failure of judgement. The same disdain for truth. The same rot.

Mandelson’s downfall should serve as a wake-up call. We cannot allow our politics to be run by men who see no evil in the company they keep, and Prime Ministers who defend them until the last possible moment.

If Keir Starmer cannot even judge the character of those he surrounds himself with, why on earth should the British people trust his judgement on anything else?

Rot has once again been laid bare at the top of government. Britons may well be wondering: what scandals await next week?