While the Labour leader is deeply unpopular, several factors – including the Iran war – seem to be delaying his exit
It still feels improbable that the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, will face a formal challenge even if, as assumed, his Labour party performs disastrously in next month’s local elections. But for many of his MPs, the latest revelations about Peter Mandelson have emphasised that the question is simply one of when, not if.
“It does seems incredible that he didn’t know, but the problem is that it’s quite possible as well,” was the summary of one backbencher, in response to No 10’s insistence that no one had told the prime minister that his pick to be the UK ambassador to Washington had failed his security vetting.
Some MPs believe the Mandelson vetting fiasco could be terminally damaging for a prime minister who, as one said, had painted himself as “whiter than white”. “I can’t see how he survives this,” one said. “I just don’t think it’s feasible for him to say he didn’t know anything. I’m angry and really sad.”
This, however, seems to be a minority view. For weeks there has been a growing consensus within the parliamentary Labour party (PLP) that terrible results on 7 May for elections to the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and English councils will not be the end point for the prime minister, for several interconnected reasons.
