Cabinet ministers and Labour leadership contenders distanced themselves from Sir Keir Starmer’s scandal-ridden hiring of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, as a senior ex-official deepened the row plaguing No 10.
The i Paper understands that Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister and a leading candidate to take over from the Prime Minister, privately warned Starmer not to appoint Mandelson due to his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
It came after Ed Miliband, the energy secretary who is also seen by some MPs as a contender to take over from Starmer, broke ranks on Tuesday morning to reveal that he feared Mandelson’s appointment could “blow up” or “go wrong” and that he told then foreign secretary David Lammy who held similar fears.
The i Paper was also told on Tuesday that other Cabinet ministers had private concerns about the appointment and wanted Starmer to keep the previous ambassador, Karen Pierce, although they did not raise the issue with No 10.
Starmer facing another wave of calls to resign
It comes with Starmer facing another wave of anger and calls to resign after former Foreign Office chief civil servant Sir Olly Robbins, who was sacked over claims of failures in Mandelson’s vetting, suggested he was put under pressure by No 10 to get the peer’s security cleared.
Robbins’ evidence to the Commons Foreign Affairs committee cast doubt on Starmer’s claims that he tried to follow due process and was let down by alleged lies from Mandelson and failures in security vetting.
Amid the explosive row, Cabinet ministers and Labour leadership contenders appeared to try and distance themselves from the Prime Minister.
It was reiterated on Tuesday that Rayner had privately warned Starmer over the appointment. Friends said she had highlighted public evidence that Mandelson and Epstein had a close relationship after the latter’s conviction for sex offences.
It came as Rayner used a speech to call for “bolder action” from Starmer’s Government, echoing a challenge from two Labour MPs who said the country is “not moving in the right direction” and saying the party’s backbenchers “are as hungry for change as the public”.
Miliband ‘steered well clear of Peter Mandelson’
Miliband meanwhile told Sky News: “You’re saying he should never have been appointed and I agree with you.”
He pointed out that “I steered well clear of Peter Mandelson when I became Labour leader in 2010”.
Asked what he thought when Lord Mandelson’s appointment was announced, he said: “That it could blow up, that it could go wrong.”
He added: “I had a conversation with David Lammy about it before the appointment, and I said I was worried about it … I think he was worried about it too.”
Miliband later delivered a defence of his clean energy policies which some Labour insiders believe could form the basis of a leadership run.
Speaking at the National Growth Debate in central London, he said net zero offered “hope” by preserving the environment and cutting bills. “Hope is the biggest thing that matters,” he said. “I think it’s really important this. People feel they’ve been in a long, dark tunnel really since 2008 and the cost of living crisis.
“Hope is the commodity that we have to offer as a government.”
One Cabinet minister however hit back at colleagues’ suggestions they were against Mandelson’s appointment, insisting “”most people I know thought it was a risk worth taking at the time”.
“Trump had just been elected and the view was we needed someone different,” the minister told The i Paper.
They also said they “don’t remember” concerns being raised with No 10 by any Cabinet ministers, in an apparent swipe at Rayner’s claims.
‘If there were easy answers, we would take them’
Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, Darren Jones, also hit back at Rayner, telling the National Growth Debate in central London: “I’d just say to any parliamentarian, whether they’re from my own party or from opposition parties, it’s all well and good saying, we should be more bold, but what do you mean?
“I mean I’m all ears, if there were easy answers we would have taken them.”
Meanwhile, foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said she was “extremely concerned” about Sir Olly Robbins’ claim that No 10 wanted to appoint former comms chief Matthew Doyle to a plum ambassadorial role, and that he not inform the foreign secretary about the request.
“I am, of course, extremely concerned at any suggestion that the permanent secretary or permanent undersecretary of the Foreign Office would be told not to inform the foreign secretary,” she said
“I can also confirm that the case that he raised, it would not have been an appropriate appointment.”
Doyle, now a Lord but who has had the whip removed over his support of a Labour council candidate after he was charged for possessing indecent images of children, denies he sought any ambassadorial position.
Mood in the party is ‘sad and angry’
A senior Labour MP described the mood within the PLP as “both angry and sad”, but said no one was expecting a move against the Prime Minister before May.
Any challenge from frontrunner Rayner will likely have to wait until the conclusion of an HM Revenue and Customs investigation into her tax affairs, which forced her to resign as deputy prime minister in September over under-paid stamp duty on a flat on the south coast.
“Nothing will happen before the local elections, because we’re in the nosedive already and no one wants to walk into that,” the senior Labour MP said.
“I don’t think there will be a move immediately, but May will precipitate it. There’s a 50 per cent chance of a move against him in May, but I haven’t heard of anything being orchestrated. People are sceptical about wanting to be the first mover.”
Hence then, the article about rayner privately warned starmer over mandelson as leadership rivals circle wounded pm was published today ( ) and is available on inews ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Rayner privately ‘warned’ Starmer over Mandelson – as leadership rivals circle wounded PM )
Also on site :