UK

A senior cabinet minister has admitted that “political considerations” about Peter Mandelson’s “outstanding singular talents” meant security concerns about the Labour peer being made ambassador to the US were ignored.Business secretary Peter Kyle repeated the claim on Sky News and BBC on Sunday morning that “new information” coming to light over Lord Mandelson’s relationship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein led to his sacking on Friday.Last week The Independent revealed that Sir Keir pushed through his appointment earlier this year despite failing security vetting by MI6. Mr Kyle refused to say if the prime minister spoke to Lord Mandelson directly to let him know he was sacked, nor whether the appointment had been a mistake in the first place.Mandelson was sacked as the UK’s representative in Washington on Thursday More

Keir Starmer is facing growing questions over his leadership of the Labour party and the country after a disastrous fortnight. In the last two weeks his deputy prime minister had to resign after she admitted she had not paid enough tax, his ambassador to Washington was sacked in a row over his links to notorious paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his long-planned government ‘reset’ appears to have fallen flat. The PM is now facing increasing demands to explain what he knew and when over Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein – and defend his decision to appoint the Labour grandee, forced to resign from government twice already. Some Labour MPs believe a major change is needed in their government including, potentially, a change of leader. A new campaigning group within the party, Mainstream, was launched by Andy Burnham this week and could become a vehicle for precisely that new direction. Sir Keir Starmer is facing mounting pressure from his own party in a week where he stood by British ambassador to the United States Lord Peter Mandelson – then sacked him More

Lord Mandelson could be in line for a substantial taxpayer-funded payout after he was sacked by Sir Keir Starmer over his relationship with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Sir Keir, who picked the Labour grandee to be the UK’s man in Washington, dramatically sacked him after the publication of emails which showed Lord Mandelson sent supportive messages even as Epstein faced jail for sex offences. No 10 said the emails revealed “materially different” information from what was known when the peer was appointed. But by deciding not to resign in the wake of the emails, Lord Mandelson could have to be compensated, experts have warned.Lord Mandelson was removed from his position as ambassador to the US earlier this week (PA) More

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