Sir Keir Starmer is facing the prospect of further questions about his leadership after sacking Lord Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington over his links to the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
A three-hour emergency debate will be held in the Commons on Tuesday in which MPs will probe the Prime Minister’s case for sacking Lord Mandelson when he did.
There is no requirement for Sir Keir to attend the urgent debate in the chamber, but it could provide an opportunity for Labour MPs to openly express their discontent with his judgment in the affair.
The Prime Minister on Monday said he felt “angry” after being forced to sack Lord Mandelson.
But he is facing questions about his decision to back the peer at Prime Minister’s Questions last week while knowing that further revelations about Lord Mandelson’s relationship with US financier Epstein would come to light.
Sir Keir was aware when he stood up at PMQs that further revelations were due about Lord Mandelson, because the then ambassador had acknowledged “very embarrassing” messages would surface.
The Prime Minister also knew the Foreign Office had asked Lord Mandelson questions about them, but he insisted he did not know about the content of the emails – or Lord Mandelson’s response to the official inquiries – until Wednesday night.
Emails published by Bloomberg included passages in which Lord Mandelson told Epstein to “fight for early release” shortly before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
He is also reported to have told Epstein “I think the world of you” the day before the disgraced financier began his sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008.
Asked whether he was angry with Lord Mandelson, Sir Keir told Channel 4 News: “I’m angry to have been put in that position.”
He also told the broadcaster that “I think it would be better if the detailed allegations that have been made in relation to Peter had been put in front of me before PMQs”.
Sir Olly Robbins, the chief civil servant at the Foreign Office, is meanwhile being asked to appear before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee to urgently set the record straight on whether Lord Mandelson was properly vetted ahead of his appointment as ambassador.
The embattled Sir Keir, who is facing calls from some Labour backbenchers to resign, also insisted to Channel 4 there was no need for him to do so.
One of the Prime Minister’s senior aides, Paul Ovenden, quit the Government on Monday after a series of derogatory sexual remarks he made about Diane Abbott in 2017 were published by ITV News.
The fresh departure, alongside that of Lord Mandelson and former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, makes for the loss of three senior figures in the course of two weeks.
The upheaval within Government, alongside Labour’s poor polling position, has led some backbenchers to call for the Prime Minister to stand down.
