Will Keir Starmer resign? — Inside Story

[0:01] he's accused of links to the sex offender jeffrey epstein he also failed government security checks [0:07] yet peter mendelson was appointed uk ambassador to the us now the prime minister is under pressure [0:13] to resign but will he and how will the fallout impact the uk labor party this is inside story [0:20] hello welcome to the program i'm tom mcrae the mendelson scandal has resurfaced in the uk and [0:43] prime minister care starmer is in the line of fire again this time it's because he appointed peter [0:49] mendelson as ambassador to the united states even though he failed the government's security clearance [0:55] starmer says he did not know but the opposition isn't convinced as the fallout deepens calls are [1:01] growing for him to step down mendelson's links to the late sex offender jeffrey epstein have cast [1:07] a shadow over starmer's government so will the prime minister survive the crisis we'll talk to [1:13] our guests in just a moment but first this report from imaging kimber pressure is mounting on uk [1:21] prime minister keir starmer it's the second time he's come under fire for his appointment of peter [1:27] mandelson as ambassador to the united states mandelson was sacked in september 2025 for his links to sex [1:35] offender and pedophile jeffrey epstein it's now emerged that he failed the government's vetting [1:41] process but was still appointed to the senior diplomatic position starmer says he didn't know [1:48] not only was i not told no minister was told and i'm absolutely furious about that what i intend to [1:56] do is to go to parliament on monday to set out all the relevant facts in true transparency so parliament [2:03] has the full picture the leader of the opposition says that's not good enough despite it we know that [2:09] his appointment would pose a risk to national security somehow he was appointed anyway either [2:17] the prime minister is lying or he is so incompetent that he is unfit to run the country a senior advisor [2:26] to the prime minister says the foreign office knew mandelson had failed security clearance but this [2:31] letter states mandelson had it the fact that that process did not require officials to tell the foreign [2:37] secretary or the prime minister that they ignored the advice of security and vetting officials [2:42] is totally unacceptable one senior foreign office official has already been fired most labor party [2:49] members of parliament have rallied behind their leader with a few exceptions to force a leadership [2:56] contest 20 percent of labor mps need to back a challenger that's 81 politicians mr speaker let me [3:03] although if starmer was found to have knowingly misled parliament he would have broken the ministerial code [3:08] and would be expected to resign uk local elections are just weeks away and opinion polls suggest they [3:15] could be punishing for labor imaging kimber al jazeera for inside story let's bring in all our guests now [3:27] all of them are joining us from london today dennis mcshane is a former uk foreign office minister of [3:33] state and labor mp jennifer nadal is the co-founder of the cross-party think tank compassion in politics [3:41] and giles canningham is the founder of the consultancy trafalgar strategy and a former [3:46] communications director for the uk conservative party thanks so much for joining us here on inside [3:51] story we do appreciate your time today dennis if i can begin with you you've served as a foreign [3:56] office minister you know how these appointments work from from the inside how serious is the damage to [4:03] care starmer right now it's serious in the sense that many people believe myself included it was a [4:12] mistake ever to consider peter maddelson who has many political talents to be ambassador to the united [4:18] states he was brought into the cabinet by tony blair but tony had to fire him because he took a huge loan [4:25] from another very very rich mp but didn't declare it which is a parliamentary sin if you like and then [4:32] gordon brown when he became prime minister found he couldn't live without peter so he brought him [4:36] back from being a european commissioner and blow me down peter comes back and then starts asking for [4:42] residence permits for two indian arms traders called the hinduja brothers who the indian government [4:48] wanted to put on trial and when that came out of the open gordon brown had to fire him now none of us [4:55] can understand why keir starmer maybe he thinks it's third time lucky thought peter would be of use [5:01] the idea that any individual any individual in britain gets good better access to donald trump [5:07] surely the one thing we've learned in the last six weeks is that donald trump lives in his own world [5:13] and just doesn't have any relationships with anybody in another country that are normal and decent so a [5:19] lot of it's concocted it's rather sad this weekend when we should be focusing i think on the gulf on [5:26] opening the strait of hormuz on helping our friends in the gulf states on putin continuing to rearm and [5:33] press and threaten other countries in europe just like the iranians are we've got a kind of yabu game [5:40] of the actories and nigel farage and kemi badlock accusing starmer of all the sins under the earth i [5:46] mean the basic problem is it was a misjudgment by a prime minister who does have a bit of a record [5:52] on political misjudgments okay so a misjudgment uh giles you've worked at the top of conservative [5:57] party communications before starmer says he knew nothing about the failed vetting i mean is that [6:03] credible do you think to to take care starmer at his word right now i mean he must be the low uh the [6:10] least curious prime minister in history this is a guy who campaigned on a ticket of having been a lawyer [6:17] director of public prosecution someone who said that he had a forensic approach to policy making [6:23] to politics yet we've just seen one disaster after another where it's always someone else's fault you [6:29] know miss the rules doesn't want to live by the rules and i think at the moment you need starmer it [6:35] is going to be a slow political death he's on borrowed time his greatest weapon is uncertainty i don't [6:40] think he will be removed right now in the middle of local elections but i think after that there will be [6:46] a great chorus of calls for him to set out a timetable for his departure okay so he you from [6:51] what you're saying you think he could survive until after may the 7th when we have those local elections [6:57] in the uk jennifer if we can take a step back and explain to our international audience what the [7:04] developed vetting process actually is what it's designed to do and how it works so the vetting process [7:12] is carried out by a separate organization within government and it seeks to establish whether or [7:19] not someone is safe whether they are safe with highly the most sensitive information which of course [7:26] an ambassador to the united states would be privy to it's very intense at this level it's very [7:32] personal it involves extensive interviews and an investigation of connections and any possible [7:39] suspicions about him however the advice that is given is not binding so it can be overridden what [7:47] i think is is really troubling about this is the idea that no one more senior than the senior civil [7:54] servant to whom the vetting clearance was was given was privy to this and i think we have to look at [8:01] the prime minister's words he's a lawyer and he's chosen them very carefully no minister was told [8:07] about the failure of the vetting and no minister may have been told but they may have known there's [8:13] also another factor which is that the independent newspaper which is one of the uk's national [8:18] newspapers ran a front page story saying that the vetting had been failed and spoke to the press team [8:27] at number 10 downing street and told them so the idea that no one more senior than than the press team [8:34] or the civil servant in the foreign office would know about this is slightly hard to believe that [8:41] said i think we have to look at the context in which mandelson was appointed and and i agree with [8:47] dennis mcshane that he is a far from ideal candidate but at the moment that he was appointed [8:52] we had a long trusted ambassador to the united states who was leaving and we had we didn't know the [8:57] full scale of what trump would be doing but we did know that he was going to be a very difficult [9:03] president to deal with and the thing the reason why mandelson kept being reappointed despite previous [9:10] bad conduct was he was a master of the dark arts he's highly political highly connected [9:15] and it may well be that starmer just said i've got to bite the bullet swallow back all my concerns [9:21] about him and get him appointed and that was the instruction that was given to the civil service [9:26] right dennis i can see you're chomping at the bits to to jump in here can you can you just uh i i [9:32] i know that uh you from what you've said before you you're no great fan of of mandelson do we know [9:37] why at this point in time why he actually failed that security process no i i i don't i remember as [9:45] the minister being appointed and incredibly excited when every morning in my box a red box in my office [9:51] there was a plain paper folder with material that s the mi6 our spooks were sending in for my area [9:59] of responsibility which was the balkans which at the time it was very very sensitive a lot of very [10:05] dodgy business going on and i was thrilled then i started reading all this information i thought wait [10:10] a minute i read that in the economist two weeks ago hang on i read that in the mall two days ago the idea [10:18] that there's some super state secrets that swizz around and shouldn't be given to x or y i think [10:24] is wrong peter no i'm i'm a fan of peter in that together with tony blair gordon brown he brought the [10:33] labour party back from the dead the living dead and gave us a long period of government which i can tell [10:39] you given that the wreckage we've had in the last 10 years of now negative growth of declining gdp [10:46] many people even business people right-wingers would quite be quite happy to get back to but [10:52] you know we are we are mr starmer it was a very successful lawyer for then in his 50s he decided [10:59] to retire and take a retirement job as a politician but he never did a trading course in politics and [11:06] that's one of the difficulties a bit like president macro in france great banker not a very good politician [11:12] right for our international audience i just want to bring them up to date with those that might not [11:17] really know the ins and outs in the history of of peter mandelson before his fall from grace he was a [11:22] prominent uk labor politician he was an advisor to tony blair and is credited with helping him win the [11:28] 1997 and 2001 national elections and during his career mandelson held senior cabinet roles including [11:35] secretary of state for trade and for northern ireland he was also [11:39] an mp for the industrial port town of hartlepool between 2004 and 2008 mandelson served as the [11:46] european commissioner for trade and he is no stranger to controversy as we heard in 1998 he [11:52] resigned over an undeclared loan and in 2001 he was accused of using his position to help associates [11:59] acquire passports and he stepped down but was later cleared over that giles if i can [12:05] bring you back in here i mean that's all before we get to his ties with with epstein is this man [12:14] going to be the one that brings down keir starmer do you think yeah i think ultimately he will be um [12:21] you know he's already claimed uh three scalps in the process clearly it's been a catalogue of events [12:27] which have led to starmer being in his position where he is literally on a political life support [12:33] machine but yes ultimately i do think it's going to be his poor handling i mean apparently um keir [12:39] starmer said you know he didn't even speak to peter mandelson before he appointed him [12:43] you know according to him really didn't have anything to do with it it was done by his subordinates [12:48] by his delegates but you know ultimately advisors advise and politicians decide and he needs to be [12:54] held accountable for this clearly the political calculation that was made was that appointing such a [12:59] controversial and polarizing figure like peter manderson was a price worth paying i think that [13:04] price may well be keir starmer's job as prime minister jennifer the conservative leader has said [13:09] that uh starmer how could starmer not have asked basic questions about what went wrong uh with the [13:15] appointment she went on to say the prime minister is either lying or he is so incompetent that he is [13:21] unfit to run the country either way do you see his position as untenable i think this substantially [13:30] weakens his position and i do think it goes to the heart of a really corrosive issue in politics [13:37] generally and and particularly in this case in the united kingdom which is about integrity which is [13:43] about the role of honesty is it political expedience first is it denial first and then accountability [13:50] second or can we actually shift to a system where honesty and integrity are of the highest accord and [13:57] it's interesting because this this issue comes just before a law is due to be passed in the uk parliament [14:04] which would make misleading the public a criminal offense it's part of the measures that were introduced [14:10] as part of the hillsborough law which came after the terrible tragedy for liverpool football supporters [14:15] who died and there was cover-up and now it's actually in the future if this bill passes it will be [14:20] a crime to mislead um the public but of course starmer isn't the first person and and giles will [14:28] know only too well because the prime minister he worked for boris johnson misled parliament repeatedly [14:34] and that was over a matter of whether or not parties were held and i think we've got to keep this in [14:40] perspective this is not an issue of personal gain or personal misconduct this is misjudgment [14:46] unfortunately it is misjudgment that feeds the corrosive belief in the public that politicians can't be trusted [14:54] i don't think it'll be the final nail but the may elections are when many people expect starmer's position [15:00] to really become untenable if if labor does do very badly at those elections so i think it doesn't help his position [15:07] but ultimately i don't think he will resign over this okay the the civil servant responsible has resigned [15:14] and i think the government is hoping that that scalp will be enough for now well misjudgments as we know [15:18] can end political careers uh dennis one of the reporters that interviewed uh care starmer after this [15:25] all came out said why do you always end up sounding like a passenger in the government rather than the [15:31] driver two years in and it doesn't sound like you have a grip on your party is that the heart of the [15:38] problem for care starmer partly yes indeed as i said uh a very skilled lawyer but not a practicing [15:49] politician the great politicians like margaret thatcher or tony blair they do oxen maybe they [15:54] become a lawyer and then they do politics they do it for 10 years 20 years and they get at it i love the [16:01] idea of a law and all good luck it's the idea of a law that would make it a crime to mislead the public [16:07] i could give you the names of a few newspaper editors who'll be imprisoned very fast if if that [16:13] law is is finally adopted and and implemented but yes i think that people were always a bit concerned [16:20] that um secure didn't have just the political arts you can call them dark arts you call them culling [16:27] call them what you wanted would churchill had them roosevelt had the the great leaders we've had [16:33] have had to have them especially in a democracy you don't need them in a dictatorship uh and now uh as [16:40] was said it's not just local elections uh on may the 7th it's the parliaments of scotland and wales [16:46] about by my calculation four and a half thousand labor candidates will be facing the electors of may [16:52] the 7th if they wake up on may the 8th and a lot of them are out of work the mps labor mps they work [17:00] with will look at the prime minister and say hey we don't want to lose our jobs in a couple of years [17:06] time have you thought of perhaps doing something else giles you're you've managed political [17:13] communications at the at the highest level in in the uk starmer describes the situation as [17:18] unforgivable he's clearly absolutely furious and in his words how do you think he should be handling uh [17:24] the next 48 to 72 hours uh in the lead up uh to to going to parliament on monday well look as ever [17:34] uh transparency is is the only way in these situations and being fully accountable starmer [17:40] has said he's going to go to parliament and what he what he really needs to do is set out a very [17:45] detailed timeline of who knew what when um and publish any relevant documents soli robbins the former [17:53] permanent secretary in the foreign office who has carried the can who's had to resign or who's been [17:58] fired um over this whole debacle will be giving evidence to a parliamentary select committee on [18:04] tuesday and that could be a real bombshell moment could once again cause huge problems for the leadership [18:11] because from all the briefings you're reading in the uk press he's not going to go quietly he feels like [18:16] he's been made a scapegoat and he's going to fight back so the idea this story is going to go away [18:21] anytime soon i think uh it's not the case it's got many days to run okay jennifer as we heard the top [18:28] civil servant at the foreign office uh ollie robbins is basically taking taking the fall here [18:33] is he a scapegoat because we heard that uh the former foreign office chief sir simon mcdonald say [18:40] that this is the biggest crisis for the diplomatic service in decades is is that a fair assessment of [18:45] of how things stand right now that is how it's being talked about but i think there have been [18:52] worse crises ollie the the the civil servant that was fired his allies are coming out and defending [18:58] him but actually i think it's good that we have accountability i think the public needs to see [19:02] that if a mistake is made there is someone who carries the can for it the question is should the [19:08] senior civil servant have carried the can for it or should it have been his political master dennis [19:15] who do you think should have taken the fall for this well in the end the buck stops as president [19:20] truman said on his desk on the prime minister's desk but i often ask myself the imf has just given [19:29] britain the the news that its economy in the last 10 years since brexit has been the worst performing in [19:37] the g7 we're becoming we've lost eight percent of gdp now all the decisions on government side taken by [19:45] very senior civil servants in the treasury in number 10 as well as the politicians we've had five tory [19:51] prime ministers since brexit because each one was progressively more useless than his or her [19:57] predecessor who actually accepts responsibility for the lamentable state of british defense the british [20:04] economy of british policing of british education there is a crisis in britain uh that people are not [20:12] properly discussing but the leaders of the opposition quite rightly just say oh it's all the fault of [20:17] keir starmer liar liar pants on fire you're a liar you're awful you're dreadful off you go but i'm [20:23] afraid if it was that easy uh britain could just fire a prime minister and start becoming a successful [20:29] country again it isn't that easy i guess carrying on from from that point giles how does the media in [20:35] britain play into all of this i mean the british media loves this scandal as we know loves the [20:39] personalities is is not particularly interested in getting uh too in depth in in policy uh talked [20:46] does does a scandal does a crisis like this just feed the british media well i think politicians who [20:54] blame the media is a bit like blaming the weather i mean the need to be politicians ultimately have to be [20:59] held to account um in these situations yes i would say we probably have one of the most vibrant uh [21:07] press sort of media corps in the world yes it's probably the most hostile but ultimately i think [21:12] that's a good thing look actually uh this first story that really the people who kicked this story [21:20] off about mandelson's links to epstein were the papers and for a long time starmer was kind of saying [21:25] nothing to see here move along well i don't know i haven't spoken to him about this once again i'm saying [21:31] not very curious it was actually the press uh by keeping those questions going who actually helped [21:36] held the government's feet to the fire are the press perfect no they're not but i'd much rather have [21:41] a vibrant uh uh press which is asking these difficult questions and yeah of course this is a huge story for [21:49] them and it's one that's gonna run and run but i think quite rightly the government's feet are being held [21:54] to the fire you know and then it says you know okay uh we can look back at history but ultimately [22:00] kistama's been in power for two years and what does he stand for we know what he's against but we don't [22:05] know what he's for there is no political agenda there's no real story to tell which is why things [22:10] are unraveling so quick for him jennifer dennis touched on this a little earlier in the greater [22:15] scheme of things is is this crisis uh with mandelson is it even really a big deal i mean [22:23] we've obviously got the conflict that is ongoing in in the middle east the wider economic fallout [22:28] from from what's happening in the strait of hormuz fuel shortages the cost of living crisis is this [22:33] really a time for for people to be focused on on a political internal crisis for for kistama it's [22:42] really a sideshow compared with those huge issues and matters of life and death and war and economic [22:49] recession that we're seeing being played out in the middle east and we have to remember that the [22:54] british press is 80 owned by right-wing magnets and so the press is very biased against starmer he [23:02] doesn't have an easy time i'm not saying that he's blameless but there is a movement that wants him out [23:08] and that doesn't help but he has not helped himself dennis mcshane mentioned a moment ago some of the [23:14] leaders that britain has had that really had integrity that really spoke to the public as if they [23:21] knew what they believed and starmer is an excellent technocrat and lawyer but he is doesn't have that [23:27] connection with what he really feels and there are huge issues there's the issue of gaza there's the [23:32] issue of of the middle east conflict there's the issue of brexit which of course has caused much of [23:38] the damage to the uk economy that um dennis mcshane just described and was the legacy that he inherited [23:46] but he hasn't come out and said what he thinks you know we know from his time as a lawyer that he is [23:51] quite radical that he has strongly held beliefs but we haven't heard any of those strongly held [23:56] beliefs we have just heard him tinkering trying to do whatever he thinks the right-wing press and [24:02] the electoral threat that reformed the right-wing party in the uk poses he's been trying to please [24:07] them rather than stepping back and saying no this is what i believe and this is the country that britain [24:13] is and i think if he'd done that none of these issues would be able to have the purchase that [24:19] they have today in the press okay dennis the opposition as well as many others will be sharpening [24:25] their knives for keir starmer ahead of uh monday what political traps does he actually need to avoid [24:31] when he faces parliament and how do you think that is going to play out i don't think money will be that [24:37] important everything is is out in the open i haven't got time to discuss the technicalities of this [24:44] famous vetting process uh which in the end if the prime minister wants to appoint you or giles or [24:52] anybody to be an ambassador somewhere he's got that sovereign right if you like i mean peter manelson [24:58] certainly was a friend of jeffrey epstein but so was jeffrey epstein at the heart of the royal family [25:05] through prince andrew in a much more serious way but with sex and young women not not peter's problem [25:12] young young young women and who is the very best friend that jeffrey epstein ever had on god's good [25:16] earth it was donald trump so i i i mean i i myself would say wait for april the 7th sorry may the 7th [25:26] let the voters give their verdict and if they look at all the reports and it's been fairly well covered [25:34] i was a very young president national union journalist so i'm with giles i defend the right of journalists to [25:40] behave as they want uh but let's see what the voters think in what less than three weeks time [25:47] now and if there's a lot of labor seats lost okay keir starmer will have no choice but to draw certain [25:54] conclusions giles we've only got about a minute left is this the the political opening that the [26:00] conservatives need to to try and uh win back a lot of the support that they've lost especially to the [26:06] reform party what what can they do to to to make the most of this political crisis for starmer yeah [26:13] i mean look um i think they've been doing a good job recently of holding the government to account [26:19] is it going to benefit them jury stood out on that you know the political system in the uk is becoming [26:23] more and more fragmented we used to essentially have a two-party system now we have a five-party [26:29] system where you've got five parties which are all polling sort of between 15 to 22 percent of the [26:35] vote so it's a lot more transactional it's a lot more volatile as dennis said i think we need to wait [26:39] to see what the outcome is of the election on may the 7th but if labour do lose a lot of councillors [26:46] if they do badly in scotland or wales as i say i think the writing is on the wall for starmer and [26:50] there will be calls and demand for him to set out a timetable for his departure okay thank you so much [26:55] we'll have to leave it there as we are out of time but uh dennis mcshane jennifer nadal and giles [27:01] kenningham thank you so much for joining us today on inside story well thank you too for watching you [27:06] can see the program again anytime by visiting our website that's aljazeera.com for further discussion [27:12] go to our facebook page that's facebook.com forward slash aj inside story you can also join the [27:19] conversation on x our handle is at aj inside story for me tom mcrae and the whole team here goodbye for now