Sawt Falasteen - UK's Starmer scrambles to limit Epstein fallout as aides quit

The Labour leader, in office for 19 months, is facing calls from opposition politicians to resign over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, despite knowing he had maintained links to Epstein after the sex offender was convicted in 2008.

In a fresh setback, Starmer's communications chief Tim Allan quit just months into the role, the day after his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, also resigned for advising Starmer to make the contentious Mandelson appointment.

McSweeney's departure deprives the beleaguered UK leader of his closest adviser.

Allan said in a short statement that he wanted "to allow a new No.10 team to be built", referring to the prime minister's 10 Downing Street office.

Starmer has already had several communications chiefs in his short tenure, with staff departures, policy U-turns and missteps an increasing hallmark of his struggling administration that has increasingly dented his popularity.

The embattled prime minister was due to address Labour MPs later Monday in a crunch meeting.

"Advisers advise, leaders decide. He made a bad decision, he should take responsibility for that," Conservative opposition leader Kemi Badenoch told BBC radio, calling Starmer's position "untenable".

The fallout from the appointment of Mandelson, sparked by emails showing that he remained friends with Epstein long after the latter's conviction in 2008, is the most serious crisis of Starmer's time in power.

- 'Turn it around?' -

Several backbench Labour MPs, mostly from the left of the party who have never warmed to Starmer's centrist tilt, have suggested that Starmer should follow McSweeney out of the exit door.

But a number of leading figures have defended him, as no clear successor has emerged, and with the party facing key local elections in May.

"Turn it around? He has 3.5 years to run and 400 MPs," one Labour MP told AFP, referring to the party's large parliamentary majority.

Labour has trailed Nigel Farage's hard-right Reform UK party by double-digit margins in polls for the past year.

The surveys make Labour MPs increasingly uneasy, although the next general election is not due until 2029.

Starmer sacked Mandelson in September last year after documents published by the US Congress revealed the extent of Mandelson's relationship with Epstein, who killed himself in prison in 2019.

Documents released on January 30 by the US government reignited the controversy, appearing to show that Mandelson leaked confidential UK government information to financier Epstein when he was a British minister, including during the 2008 financial crisis.

Police are investigating Mandelson, 72, for misconduct in a public office and raided two of his properties on Friday. He has not been arrested.

Starmer, a human rights lawyer and former top prosecutor for England and Wales, has apologised to Epstein's victims and accused Mandelson of lying about the extent of his ties to the financier during the vetting process for his appointment to Washington.

The UK government is due to release tens of thousands of emails, messages and documents relating to the appointment of Mandelson, an outcome that could increase pressure on the prime minister and other senior Labour ministers.

Starmer also faces a crucial by-election on February 28, defeat in which would add to his woes.

L.AbuTayeh--SF-PST