UK Politics

No 10 officials were aware of emails between Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein before Sir Keir Starmer defended the peer during Prime Minister’s Questions.But the PM is understood not to have been aware of their contents until Wednesday evening, after he told the Commons he had “confidence” in his ambassador, a situation a Labour MP has condemned as “embarrassing”.Olivia Blake also called for her party to look at forcing the peer to give up his plum seat in the House of Lords in the wake of the furore – hours after fellow backbencher Clive Lewis hit out at Sir Keir saying he “doesn’t seem up to the job”. Sir Keir, who picked the Labour grandee to be the UK’s man in Washington, sacked him after the publication of the emails, which showed Lord Mandelson sent supportive messages even as Epstein faced jail for sex offences.The Foreign Office is understood to have received a media enquiry outlining details of the messages on Tuesday, which was passed on to No 10. Sir Oliver Robbins, the permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office, asked Lord Mandelson about the emails but did not hear back until Wednesday afternoon. But, with pressure mounting over their contents, the ambassador was sacked on Thursday morning. Keir Starmer’s appointment of Lord Mandelson was a political gamble (Carl Court/PA) More

Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney has long been pulling the strings behind the scenes in Downing Street. With reset after reset seeing government officials booted out and replaced, McSweeney has remained – even winning a power struggle with former chief of staff Sue Gray. But now – amid the fallout from revelations about Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and his subsequent sacking – the Downing Street spinner is facing his biggest test yet, amid claims he pushed for Lord Mandelson to be appointed in the first place. There are also reports McSweeney pushed for the Labour grandee to remain in post as pressure grew this week – allegations Downing Street has robustly pushed back against. Morgan McSweeney is facing growing questions over his supposed backing of Peter Mandelson More

A former Conservative councillor who defected to Reform UK has said the party has allowed too many Tory “rejects” to join.Jim O’Neill, leader of the Reform group in Blackpool Council, said the party “starting to feel like the Tories 2.0… but only excepting their rejects” in a now-deleted social media post.Mr O’Neill, who joined Reform after former leader Richard Tice took over in 2021, said the party “may be morphing into something I didn’t sign up for”, as reported by the BBC.The Marton ward representative said that he wasn’t “against anybody with any political background joining Reform UK. “There are some fantastic Conservative MPs and former Conservative MPs who could be, let’s say, ideologically aligned with Reform.”Mr O’Neill said the social media post was “born of frustration” and he decided to take it down ahead of the party conference as he didn’t want it to look as though he was “attention seeking”, although he stood by what he said, the BBC reported.Nadine Dorries says ‘The only politician who has the answers, the knowledge and the will to deliver is Nigel Farage’ More

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he has confidence in his under-fire chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, amid growing pressure over his involvement in the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the US. It comes amid reports he personally pushed for Lord Mandelson’s appointment, despite concerns over his links with Jeffrey Epstein. Britain’s ambassador to the US was dramatically sacked on Thursday amid new revelations about his relationship with the convicted paedophile – raising serious questions about the prime minister’s judgement, with Labour backbencher Clive Lewis becoming the first backbencher to publicly call for the prime minister to go. Morgan McSweeney is under fire over reports he backed Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador More

Experts from the United Nations (UN) have urged the government to scrap upcoming changes to disability benefits, which they say risk breaching the UK’s human rights obligations.In the damning letter, the UN Human Rights’ special rapporteurs on disability rights Heba Hagrass, and extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, raise several serious concerns over Labour’s welfare plans.The experts say that instead of achieving the stated aim of supporting people with disabilities into work, “fiscal considerations and negative perceptions of benefit claimants appear to be the driving rationale” behind the reforms.Ministers were forced into an embarrassing partial U-turn over plans to cut welfare spending in July, but key changes to Universal Credit (UC) are still set to take effect from next April.These will see the health-related element of the benefit (UC health) slashed nearly in half for new claimants – from £423.26 to £217.26 a month – and also freeze the amount for four years, meaning it will not increase with inflation.New work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden will oversee future changes to the benefits system (James Manning/PA) More

Government says Peter Mandelson sacked ‘in light of new emails’ over relationship with Jeffrey EpsteinSir Keir Starmer is facing growing anger from a “despondent” base of Labour MPs as the fallout from Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment embroils more of the prime minister’s staff. While the left of Sir Keir’s Labour Party have publicly expressed their frustration at the appointment of Lord Mandelson amid fresh revelations showing the extent of his relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, swathes of additional MPs are also reportedly dissatisfied. Lord Mandelson’s resignation came only days after former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner stepped down over a tax scandal. Scotland secretary Douglas Alexander admitted this morning that MPs were feeling “despondent” that the past fortnight had seen so much change. Sir Keir’s “phase two” of government, announced at the start of last week, has faced significant early turbulence. Now, Sir Keir’s chief of staff is also facing questions over whether he stalled attempts to sack Lord Mandelson, with some MPs suggesting his position may be under threat. Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir’s chief of staff since last October, is rumoured to have blocked efforts to remove the controversial ambassador to the UK. Labour MP says Starmer ‘not up to the job’ anymore Sir Keir Starmer is “not up to the job” of Prime Minister, a backbench Labour MP has said.Clive Lewis, MP for Norwich South, told the BBC’s The Week In Westminster programme: “You see a Labour Prime Minister who feels that he’s lost control within the first year.“This isn’t navel-gazing. This is me thinking about my constituents, this country, and the fact that the person who is eight points ahead of us is Nigel Farage. That terrifies me. It terrifies my constituents, and it terrifies a lot of people in this country.“We don’t have the luxury of carrying on this way with someone who I think increasingly, I’m sorry to say, just doesn’t seem up to the job.”Mr Lewis is the first backbencher to call for the Prime Minister to go, adding there was “a very, very dangerous atmosphere in the PLP (Parliamentary Labour Party) at the moment” following a “deeply unpopular” Cabinet reshuffle.He said: “People are concerned, slightly downtrodden, a little bit browbeaten and feeling as if the party has seen better days – it’s not a great atmosphere.”Tom Watling12 September 2025 15:44Reed said to have brought ‘change of tone’ to housing ministry after reshuffleLast week’s reshuffle has brought a “change in tone” on housing, industry sources said following a meeting with the new Housing Secretary.Steve Reed, who replaced Angela Rayner as Housing Secretary following her resignation last week, issued what officials described as a “call to arms” at a meeting with developers on Thursday.Pledging to “build, baby, build”, he said the Government was “doubling down on our plans to unleash one of the biggest eras of building in our country’s history and we are backing the builders all the way”.One of those present at the meeting told the PA news agency they had detected a “definite change in tone”, with Mr Reed focusing on areas beyond planning reform, such as mortgage availability, Government support for home buyers and the costs faced by developers.They told PA: “I think we are already seeing a broader look and engagement from that secretary of state level than maybe we did, which can only be positive, but clearly it’s very early days.”Adding that officials had shown a different perspective under Mr Reed’s direction, they described the new Housing Secretary as “someone who is clearly a doer”.Although the source said there was little discussion of policy at the meeting, they urged Mr Reed to continue engaging with industry and urge the Treasury to avoid imposing further costs on developers.( More

Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney is facing growing pressure over reports he personally pushed for Peter Mandelson’s appointment, despite concerns over his links with Jeffrey Epstein.Britain’s ambassador to the US was dramatically sacked on Thursday amid new revelations about his relationship with the convicted paedophile – raising serious questions about the prime minister’s judgement. While Mr McSweeney was said to have been in favour of the Labour grandee’s appointment, sources told The Telegraph that former chief of staff Sue Gray – who was later forced out – did not consider him to be appropriate for the position. Downing Street sources also firmly denied reports that Mr McSweeney tried to prevent Lord Mandelson’s sacking this week, which took place after Sir Keir came out and defended the ambassador in the Commons. It comes as serious concerns were raised that the Labour grandee did not clear security vetting for the role – but the prime minister pushed through his appointment anyway.Sources have told The Independent that MI6 failed to clear the Labour peer largely because of concerns over his business links to China.Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney was said to have been in favour of the Labour grandee’s appointment More