The civil servant says he was pressured by No 10 to get Mandelson’s vetting done; the PM says he wasn’t informed. Who emerges most damaged?
Polly Toynbee
Guardian columnist
Not here, not now, not this month – but sometime soon the tumbrel will come for Keir Starmer. What saves him is the dismal fact that Labour has no obvious contender that MPs would rally round. Waiting for Andy Burnham is a reason for delay – but that might prompt Wes Streeting or Angela Rayner to seize the moment before the mayor of Greater Manchester can ride back to Westminster. Starmer’s manipulation of Labour’s national executive committee to bar Burnham from standing at the Gorton and Denton byelection (that he probably would have won) was low, petty politics that turned many against him: this non-politician was supposed to rise above such grubbiness.
The prime minister’s troubles will continue: MPs have now called for Morgan McSweeney to appear before the committee. But Starmer already admits that appointing Mandelson was a serious error – though remember that despite the known Epstein link, Kemi Badenoch did not protest aganst the decision, Nigel Farage praised it and Labour’s massed ranks did not rise up.
