Starmer criticised for appointing former ambassador linked to Epstein emails

Scotland Secretary Douglas Alexander has defended Sir Keir Starmer’s appointment of Lord Mandelson - as the backlash over the former ambassador’s history with Jeffrey Epstein grows.

The Prime Minister withdrew Peter Mandelson as his ambassador to the US after emails emerged in which the peer offered support to Epstein even as he faced jail for sexual offences. 

Newly uncovered files included pictures of Lord Mandelson with the convicted paedophile and sex offender, and a lengthy birthday message in which Lord Mandelson called Epstein “my best pal”.

Sir Keir has been facing increasing pressure to shed light on how much he knew about the relationship between the pair before appointing Lord Mandelson as his ambassador, with Labour divided over the row.

But his newly appointed Secretary for Scotland, Douglas Alexander, has backed the Prime Minister, saying Lord Mandelson allowed him to forge an “unlikely friendship” with US president Donald Trump.

“My reaction when I read those emails was a combination of incredulity and revulsion,” he told LBC’s Nick Ferrari at Breakfast. “So I’m not here to defend Peter Mandelson.”

But, he added: “The reality is this was a political appointment because we judged as a government, and the Prime Minister judged that with a new president in place, a fundamentally different kind of presidential administration required a fundamentally different kind of British ambassador."

He added that the decision to appoint Lord Mandelson shouldn’t have been made, but “given all of Peter Mandelson’s experience as the EU Trade Commissioner, his long experience in politics, that we needed an unconventional ambassador for what was a very unconventional administration.

“We were faced with a... president who’d been elected previously but was coming into office with a radically new and distinctive agenda. The judgement had to be reached as to how we could get to a position where, first of all, there was a strong working relationship between the Prime Minister and the President.

“Secondly, that we could try and avoid tariffs that were going to compromise the jobs, for example, of workers at Jaguar Land Rover, and that we could manage to maintain and strengthen what is a deep and hard wired security relationship between ourselves and the United States.”

Earlier on Friday, Mr Alexander said Lord Mandelson would not have been appointed if the PM had known the depth of his relationship with the sex trafficker.

But the Labour party has been divided in their response to the scandal, with one backbencher even saying Sir Keir does not seem “up to the job”.

Clive Lewis, MP for Norwich South, said his fellow Labour MPs were feeling "concerned, slightly downtrodden, a little bit browbeaten" and that there was a "very dangerous atmosphere" in the parliamentary Labour party.

He told the BBC’s The Week In Westminster programme: "You see a Labour Prime Minister who feels that he’s lost control within the first year.

"This isn’t navel-gazing. This is me thinking about my constituents, this country, and the fact that the person who is eight points ahead of us is Nigel Farage. That terrifies me. It terrifies my constituents, and it terrifies a lot of people in this country."

"We don’t have the luxury of carrying on this way with someone who I think increasingly, I’m sorry to say, just doesn’t seem up to the job," he added.

Sir Keir, who had said he had "full confidence" in Lord Mandelson before the emails were published, is facing questions over what he knew and when about the ex-ambassador’s ties to Epstein.

The chairwoman of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee is demanding answers from the Foreign Secretary on the vetting process.

Dame Emily Thornberry has asked what security concerns were raised during the process, if the Foreign Office felt they represented a "potential barrier" to Lord Mandelson’s appointment and whether any conditions were imposed on his remit as ambassador.

She asked whether the Foreign Office or Downing Street decided to dismiss any security concerns that were raised or change the vetting requirements for Lord Mandelson.

In a letter to Yvette Cooper, who took over as Foreign Secretary after the Cabinet reshuffle, Dame Emily wrote: "It has been suggested by a number of media outlets that security concerns were overlooked during the appointments process, and that such decisions may have been taken by actors outside of the Foreign Office, perhaps senior people in No 10."

She said the allegations were “potentially very serious” and that the House of Commons must receive a "thorough response to a number of important unanswered questions".

Sir Keir is also facing anger from Labour backbenchers, some of whom have raised questions about Sir Keir’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, who was reported to have lobbied for Lord Mandelson’s initial appointment.

One Labour backbencher suggested the Mandelson scandal could be "terminal" for Mr McSweeney, but could also prove a serious problem for the Prime Minister.

They said: "I think Morgan McSweeney runs the show, and Keir just enables it and makes very bad decisions. I’m not sure how long this can continue though."

Another also suggested that problems in Number 10 went beyond the chief of staff. They said: "Even a Morgan problem is ultimately a Keir problem."

Downing Street said on Friday that the Prime Minister still had confidence in Mr McSweeney’s judgement.

"Of course the Prime Minister has confidence in his top team," a No 10 spokesman said.

Scotland Secretary Douglas Alexander told BBC Breakfast he understood why Labour MPs were "despondent", as Lord Mandelson’s dismissal came a week after Angela Rayner was forced to resign from the Cabinet and Labour’s deputy leadership.

He said: "These are not the headlines any of us in Government or in Parliament would have chosen or wanted. But the fact is when the evidence emerged, action had to be taken and we are looking forward, therefore, to moving on."

Mr Lewis said the Cabinet reshuffle that came after Ms Rayner’s departure was "deeply unpopular" among many backbench MPs and that "the party feels very narrow in terms of the political outlook from the right of the party".

"I think we’re feeling left out, I think we’re feeling alienated, marginalised and that needs to change because it’s a very, very dangerous atmosphere in the PLP (Parliamentary Labour Party) at the moment," he said.

Questions about what the Prime Minister knew of Lord Mandelson’s connection to Epstein come after allies of the peer told The Times that he had admitted in his vetting interview that he continued his relationship with Epstein for many years.

Lord Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein was known prior to his appointment, but reports in The Sun and Bloomberg showed their relationship had continued after the financier’s crimes had emerged.

Emails published on Wednesday afternoon included passages in which Lord Mandelson had told Epstein to "fight for early release" shortly before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

He is also reported to have told Epstein "I think the world of you" the day before the disgraced financier began his sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008.

David Wilson