UK Politics

Peter Mandelson has learned that favours for, and loyalty to, a sex offender can end a sticky career. Keir Starmer, this week, is bringing the King himself into a bid to charm another American who’s been found liable for sexual assault, convicted of felonies, and is a serial bankrupt.Mandelson oiled up to Jeffrey Epstein because Britain’s former ambassador to Washington has always seemingly been mesmerised by power and money.Starmer has organised Donald Trump’s state visit, pomp, parades and banquets as a strategic necessity – to wean the US president off the Russian teat. To protect Britain’s economy from the US president. And to protect the UK and Europe from a surge in Trumpian ideologues at home.Trump, for now, has slapped the UK with 10 per cent tariffs on top of existing import duties. The EU, a bigger US market, has been hit with tariffs of 20 to 50 per cent. So keeping the US president sweet is financially wise.On Tuesday, Trump will be afforded the singular honour of a second state visit to the United Kingdom. The invitation from the King was hand-delivered to the Oval Office by the British prime minister.Keir Starmer hands Donald Trump a letter from King Charles III during a meeting in the Oval Office in February More

A growing number of Labour MPs have publicly warned Sir Keir Starmer is on the brink of being ousted amid the fallout from Peter Mandelson’s sacking and a turbulent first year in office. On Monday, Richard Burgon, MP for Leeds East, said the prime minister must “change course immediately” or he will be gone by May, saying it is “inevitable” the prime minister will be forced to quit if the local elections are as bad as predicted. He also warned the UK is facing a “real threat for the first time in our country’s history of what I would consider to be a far-right extremist government”, arguing it is the prime minister’s “duty to stop that happening”.“He can only do that by delivering for people who want real change. And if he can’t do that, then of course, there’s going to have to be change at the very top,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. It comes after Labour MP Clive Lewis warned on Friday that Sir Keir “doesn’t seem up to the job”, while fellow MP Graham Stringer said Sir Keir is “supping in the last-chance saloon”. The MP for Blackley and Middleton South told Times Radio that “it is a given” among Labour MPs that the prime minister is “making mistakes and doing poorly at the job”.The warnings come just over a year after Labour won a historic majority, with the government now seeing growing concern over devastating approval ratings and mounting discontent brewing among Labour backbenchers. The prime minister is facing a challenging week amid the fallout from the sacking of Lord Mandelson More

A government minister has fuelled speculation that Peter Mandelson could be thrown out of the House of Lords or lose the Labour whip permanently, saying the former US ambassador’s links with Jeffrey Epstein were “disgusting”. Asked if the disgraced former US envoy should be stripped of his Lords seat, former home secretary Jacqui Smith said she was “angry and disgusted” by his behaviour, adding that Lord Mandelson’s fate in the Lords would be decided by chief whip Roy Kennedy.Lord Mandelson was dramatically sacked on Thursday amid new revelations about his relationship with the convicted paedophile – raising serious questions about the prime minister’s judgement. Jacqui Smith was home secretary under Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2009 More

An under-siege Keir Starmer is facing a showdown with Donald Trump over “free speech” in the UK, which could derail crucial talks during the US president’s state visit.Senior Washington sources have told The Independent that free speech is now top of the president’s agenda when he visits Chequers on Thursday for talks with the prime minister at the end of his trip.The issue could derail hopes by the UK government to get a deal to remove steel tariffs and will take up time they want to use to discuss the increasingly complex picture on the international stage, given the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.It will not, though, wreck an expected announcement on a major new tech partnership between the two countries, partly because insiders claim “Trump needs Britain to succeed”.And on Monday, Sir Keir will reveal a “landmark” deal to boost the building of nuclear plants in both countries, to be signed during Trump’s visit. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been struck by one scandal after another (Alberto Pezzali/PA) More

The government has been warned against allowing amendments from the Lords to water down its flagship Employment Rights Bill, with seven leading women’s organisations arguing that this would hamper efforts to tackle gender inequality. In a joint letter to the new business secretary, Peter Kyle, seen by The Independent, the Women’s Budget Group, the Fawcett Society, Young Women’s Trust, Rights of Women, Women’s Resource Centre, Pregnant Then Screwed, and Maternity Action have warned that the measures included in the bill are “crucial to improving women’s material living conditions and to reducing the gender pay gap”. The letter is in response to a number of amendments made to the legislation in the House of Lords before the summer recess, including proposals to introduce a six-month qualifying period for unfair dismissal and to make the right to a guaranteed hours contract a right to request, rather than a right to be offered.Equalities minister Bridget Phillipson said the bill would be delivered in full More

The name Morgan McSweeney may not be on the lips of people down in the pub or at the school gate but it is one that those in the Westminster bubble are obsessed with.Labour MPs are particularly aware of the Downing Street chief of staff’s power and importance, either as something they consider to be a toxic poison at the heart of government or the means of future preferment and promotion.So reports that Sir Keir Starmer was “screaming” at his chief of staff, telling him “you were supposed to protect me” over the Lord Mandelson debacle is a sign that this government is in incredibly serious trouble.Chief of staff Morgan McSweeney is a powerful figure More

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