THE Prime Minister has been urged to break his “silence” over Peter Mandelson’s sacking and call a “full press conference” over the weekend.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn accused Keir Starmer of going into “hiding” after defending Mandelson during PMQs on Wednesday. The former UK ambassador to the US was sacked on Thursday morning after further details of his relationship with the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein emerged.
Pressure is mounting on Starmer to answer questions about Mandelson’s appointment, how much he knew about the Labour peer’s relationship with Epstein and whether or not he is still on the public payroll.
The SNP have also lodged a bid to strip Mandelson of his peerage, while others have called for him to lose the Labour whip in the House of Lords.
“The last time we heard publicly from Keir Starmer he was standing behind the despatch box at PMQs expressing his full confidence in Peter Mandelson,” Flynn said.
“Since then, chaos has broken out and the Prime Minister has gone into hiding – but this scandal and none of the questions it raises are going away and he can’t stay silent. Peter Mandelson was his man and his appointment.
“The Prime Minister needs to answer every question and release every document on this scandal. He should call a full press conference this weekend and then come before the House of Commons on Monday.”
During PMQs, Starmer refused to commit to publishing vetting documents relating to Mandelson and repeatedly said that he had confidence in the then-ambassador.
Flynn said that Mandelson’s appointment and the subsequent scandal are Starmer’s "responsibility".
“He needs to be the one to face full scrutiny instead of passing the buck and desperately trying to throw others under the bus,” Flynn added.
Several reports have suggested that Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief of staff, pressed for Mandelson’s appointment to go ahead, despite concerns within the party over his friendship with Epstein.
The Labour peer’s friendship with Epstein was widely known, but Bloomberg and The Sun published emails showing that the relationship continued after the crimes committed by the financier had emerged.
The cache of emails obtained by Bloomberg showed that on the day before Epstein reported to jail in June 2008, Mandelson told him, “your friends stay with you and love you”.
This revelation led to Mandelson’s sacking. Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty told the Commons on Thursday that “in light of additional information” in the leaked emails, Mandelson would be “withdrawn” as his relationship with Epstein was “materially different from that known at the time of his appointment”.
Flynn added: “This Labour government has lurched from one crisis to another, one sacking to another, one mistake to another – the only constant in all this chaos is Keir Starmer himself - so maybe instead of blaming everyone else around him he should spend the weekend looking in the mirror to see where the problem really lies.
“This scandal started with the Prime Minister, his only hope of putting an end to it is by being prepared to fully answer the mounting questions that are now falling at his Downing Street door.”
On Friday, SNP MP Brendan O’Hara lodged an Early Day Motion (EDM) urging Starmer to take “the legislative steps to remove his [Mandelson’s] peerage”. Mandelson should also be “permanently removed from the public payroll,” the motion adds.
It comes as a Labour backbencher said Starmer does not seem “up to the job”.
Clive Lewis, MP for Norwich South, said his fellow Labour MPs were feeling “concerned, slightly downtrodden, a little bit browbeaten” and that there was a “very dangerous atmosphere” in the parliamentary Labour party.
