Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership will survive until at least May despite calls for him to resign due to mounting doubts over his political judgement and his handling of the Peter Mandelson scandal.
Speculation over the Prime Minister’s ability to remain in his job has renewed following new claims that Mandelson failed his vetting process to be US ambassador, but this decision was overruled.
The Prime Minister sought to distance himself from the affair insisting that he was “absolutely furious” that he was not informed the former Labour peer had failed part of his security vetting before taking his role in Washington, DC.
It prompted Starmer to oust Sir Olly Robbins from his role heading up the Foreign Office on Thursday night, following the claims that he was responsible for pushing through Mandelson’s appointment despite officials recommending against him taking up the role.
Mandelson was appointed to the top diplomatic job in December 2024. He took up the position in February 2025 but was sacked seven months later following revelations over his links to the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Labour ranks are seething at latest drama
Robbins could still pile further pressure on the Prime Minister if he decides to accept the Foreign Affairs Committee’s invitation to appear in front of them on Tuesday to set his side of the story out.
Opposition parties are demanding the Prime Minister resign over the matter, with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch warning that she will seek to use “every parliamentary option” to try to unseat him as she urged Labour MPs to “do the right thing”.
They claim the Prime Minister may have misled Parliament by insisting Mandelson had passed his vetting.
But while the Labour ranks are seething over the fallout from the Mandelson scandal, there remains little appetite within rival camps to move against the Prime Minister just weeks before a set of crucial elections in May.
A senior Labour MP, who is supportive of Health Secretary Wes Streeting becoming leader, said: “I can’t see anything happening pre-May.”
The MP added: “I just no longer believe anything No 10 says. They’re defined by what gets them through the day.”
A source within the soft-left Tribune caucus of Labour MPs echoed the comments, telling The i Paper: “I don’t think it’s changed the situation a great deal, but to my mind the chances of a challenge have gone up after the local elections – not necessarily by much but still higher than they were two days ago.”
The latest twist in the Mandelson scandal will now heap even further pressure on Starmer, who is facing the prospect of a historic defeat in Wales and a bruising set of results in Scotland and in local elections.
Talk of a leadership challenge against Starmer had quietened in recent weeks, particularly as global events, such as the Middle East conflict, dominated events, with MPs predicting that the Prime Minister could still be in post by the end of the year.
But this week’s scandal will act as a reminder to No 10 of how much damage the decision to appoint Mandelson as ambassador can still cause the Prime Minister.
PM to face ‘the fight of his life’
One MP, who wants to see Starmer replaced, said the Prime Minister will face “the fight of his life” when he gives a statement in the Commons on the latest Mandelson fiasco on Monday. But in a sign of the ongoing indecision paralysing the party, the MP added: “The big question remains unanswered – who does the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party] want to replace him?”
The Prime Minister still commands backing from significant sections of his party, however, with supporters insistent that he will come through the latest crisis.
A minister told The i Paper: “There is no change in my mind – changing PM would be the wrong thing to do. The [vetting] process is unfit.”
Another Starmer loyalist insisted they believed the Prime Minister when he said was not told that Mandelson had failed his security vetting, as they dismissed suggestions of a move against him.
“It’ll generate talk but nothing will come of it,” the MP said. “We have local elections in a matter of weeks. A King’s Speech in less than a month. Then May recess [of Parliament]. Then just over a month before the summer.”
And they added, referring to left-wing MPs: “Look who’s coming out criticising him from our benches. Jon Trickett. Diane Abbott. Come on. We can all see what’s going on there.”
Davey: Starmer ‘must go’ if he has lied
Veteran MP Trickett said it “simply doesn’t sound credible” that the Prime Minister was not told of the vetting decision, adding: “If the PM did not know, it raises gravely serious issues about the way we are governed.
“Either way, the excuses coming from Downing Street won’t cut it on the doorstep in the run-up to the local elections.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said Starmer “must go” if he had lied, and called for the Commons Privileges Committee to consider whether the Prime Minister had misled Parliament.
Davey’s party also urged the Prime Minister’s ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, to investigate, while the SNP, Green Party and Reform UK have all called for the Prime Minister to resign.
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