Political leadership is missing just as Britain needs it most. The government must step up as others stir division and disillusionment grows
P
eter Mandelson’s exit from public office in disgrace over his links to the millionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein should have been a low point for the government. Instead, it exposed a leadership in trouble, with further to fall. Sir Keir Starmer defended his ambassador after No 10 had seen the emails that sank him. Whether or not the prime minister read them, the damage is becoming institutionalised. Labour looks adrift – consumed by infighting as darker forces gather beyond Westminster.
At the weekend, more than 110,000 marched through London in Britain’s largest far-right rally in decades. Organised by Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, also known as Tommy Robinson, and billed as a “festival of free speech”, it quickly descended into conspiracy theories, Islamophobia and anti-migrant bigotry. There was violence: 26 police officers were injured. Stirring the pot was the far-right billionaire Elon Musk, dialling in via video link, who called for the dissolution of parliament and incited violence; the French rightwinger Éric Zemmour pushed the “great replacement” lie – a white nationalist myth of engineered demographic change. Maga hats, US flags and “Send them home” signs made it feel more Mar-a-Lago than Millbank.
