Ahead of a showdown with MPs, prime minister looks like a man who is not really in control in his own government
Keir Starmer has spent much of the last 24 hours working on a plan for what senior government figures are already describing as his “judgment day”: his showdown with MPs on Monday over the latest Peter Mandelson revelations.
That the prime minister was apparently not told of Mandelson’s vetting failure has provoked incredulity across Westminster and accusations he sacked a senior civil servant to save his premiership.
It has also shone a spotlight again on what many feel is Starmer’s biggest failing: his political judgment. Even though some proclaimed Mandelson’s appointment as the UK’s latest “Trump whisperer” a stroke of genius at the time, the risks were always clear.
It was common knowledge Starmer’s pick for UK ambassador to Washington had been sacked from cabinet twice, had an ongoing relationship with convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and had business links with China.
