UK government reeling from Epstein fallout as screws tighten on Starmer

By Christian Edwards, CNN

London (CNN) — Keir Starmer was fighting to salvage his premiership on Monday after the resignations of key advisers and growing calls from senior Labour figures for the British prime minister to step down, following a bitter fallout from the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Tim Allan, Starmer’s director of communications, said Monday that he was quitting the government. It came less than a day after Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s chief of staff and his closest adviser, resigned over his role in the appointment of Peter Mandelson – a friend of Jeffrey Epstein – as Britain’s ambassador to the United States last year.

Allan’s resignation adds to the sense that the scandal surrounding the Mandelson appointment cannot be contained and could spell the end of Starmer’s premiership, just 19 months after Labour swept to power in a landslide election that gave it the largest majority in Parliament this century.

That sense grew stronger after Anas Sarwar, the leader of the Scottish Labour Party, broke rank on Monday afternoon and called for Starmer to step down, becoming the first senior Labour figure to do so in public.

“The distraction needs to end, and the leadership in Downing Street has to change,” Sarwar said. He said the decision to call for Starmer to go had caused him “personal hurt and pain,” but he felt a change of direction was needed ahead of local elections in May, which have long been expected to serve as a referendum on Starmer’s leadership.

The British public soured on Starmer almost as soon as it elected him in 2024. Although Labour promised a “decade of national renewal” – which would require it to win two elections – a series of policy missteps and churn at the top of government have driven Starmer’s approval ratings to record lows. Labour’s woes have been to the benefit of the populist Reform UK party, which has led in the polls for more than a year.

Starmer is facing his biggest crisis yet over his decision to appoint Mandelson – a veteran Labour politician – as ambassador to the US, despite his well-known friendship with Epstein, which continued after the disgraced financier’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. The Mandelson revelations have dominated British media for days, snowballing into one of the country’s biggest political scandals this century.

Starmer fired Mandelson in September after a tranche of emails revealed uncomfortable details about his ties to Epstein. Further details of Mandelson’s connection to Epstein emerged when the US Department of Justice last month released millions of documents relating to the disgraced financier. Some of those documents appeared to show that Mandelson, while serving as Britain’s business secretary in 2009, passed Epstein market-sensitive information.

Having launched a criminal investigation into misconduct in public office, UK police searched two properties linked to Mandelson last week. CNN has been unable to reach Mandelson for comment.

Meanwhile, opposition parties – and even figures inside Labour – have called on Starmer to release documents relating to his government’s decision to appoint Mandelson as ambassador to the US.

In a statement Sunday, McSweeney – a protégé of Mandelson’s – said he took “full responsibility” for advising Starmer to make the appointment.

“The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself,” McSweeney said, adding that he remained “fully supportive” of the prime minister.

Starmer said last week that Mandelson had lied about the extent of his friendship with Epstein and that the revelations from the DOJ’s latest release of documents were “beyond infuriating.”

In a speech to his staff on Monday morning, Starmer again lambasted Mandelson, saying that his “shameful behavior” is “wholly incompatible with public service,” according to a readout from Downing Street.

But if Starmer had hoped to reassert his grip on power at the start of a new week, that grip was once again shaken by the resignation of Allan, another close ally, who joined as communications director around five months ago.

“I have decided to stand down to allow a new No. 10 team to be built. I wish the PM and his team every success,” Allan said in a brief statement.

Starmer now faces an uphill battle to convince his party that he remains the right person to lead the country. In a coordinated show of support Monday afternoon, members of Starmer’s cabinet took to X to argue the prime minister’s case.

David Lammy, the deputy prime minsiter, said Starmer had won a mandate “for five years to deliver on Labour’s manifesto… We should let nothing distract us from our mission to change Britain and we support the Prime minister in doing that.” Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, said Starmer’s leadership was needed “not just at home but on the global stage.”

Later Monday evening, the prime minister is expected to speak to backbench Labour members of parliament – of which there are nearly 400 – in an attempt to shore up his dwindling support.

Sarwar’s decision to call for Starmer to step down could embolden restive Labour lawmakers to do the same. The Scottish Labour leader said he had spoken to Starmer before calling for him to step down, “and I think it’s safe to say that he and I disagreed.”

“There have been too many mistakes,” Sarwar said. “They promised they were going to be different, but too much has happened. Have there been good things? Of course, there have been many of them, but no one knows them and no one can hear them because they’re being drowned out. That’s why it cannot continue.”

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CNN’s James Frater contributed reporting.