He can’t have anticipated that it would have happened so soon, otherwise he would never have appointed him. That failure of judgement is just one of the many reasons that this departure – rather than the exit of Angela Rayner last week – is the most damaging yet to the Labour Government.
square KITTY DONALDSON Mandelson might be gone - but Starmer's future is now in doubt
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He stuck to a prepared formulation of words about having full confidence in Mandelson’s role and the US-UK relationship being an important one. Such a lawyerly line might have worked coming from a spokesman at a briefing, but not in the bearpit of the House of Commons. Starmer couldn’t work out what else to say. He did not give the impression of being in charge, or at all sure of what he wanted to do.
He has made many enemies over his many years in and out of Labour governments, some of whom still hold sway in this administration. Starmer swung from believing that it would be too destabilising to sack an ambassador much liked by Trump just before the US President’s state visit next week, to seeing that Mandelson’s position could threaten to overshadow the entire event.
In fact, it is one of the few things that has gone well for Starmer since coming into office: in contrast to his domestic travails, he clearly knows what role he wants to play on the world stage, and gained much credit for the way he dealt with the fallout from Trump’s Oval Office showdown with Volodymyr Zelensky.
It couldn’t be for a worse reason, either. The Epstein case is one of the few things that Trump feels vulnerable on personally, and where he is aware that his Maga base is deeply uncomfortable.
To sack an ambassador who was in those circles will seem like a judgement from Starmer on the US President too, and risk offending him, weakening the carefully crafted relationship and undermining Starmer’s influence.
square IAN DUNT This Labour Government was supposed to be better. It isn't
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Of course, foreign policy doesn’t really work that way: you’re not going to change much if you only talk to the people you already agree with and tell the others you don’t like them, but The Labour Party contains a lot of people who’ve never thought through the implications of that sort of approach.
The state visit is in fact a long time away in political terms: before then, Starmer has to answer potentially very damaging questions – not just about his overall judgement, but also the granular detail of what he knew about Mandelson’s communications with Epstein (and when he knew it).
Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of ‘The Spectator’ magazine.
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