Political scandals come and go. But sometimes something happens that casts the darkest shadow over a governing political party that is so rotten it consumes the Government itself all the way to the very top.The abhorrent Starmer-Mandelson-Epstein scandal is just that.

The facts are well known. One year ago Keir Starmer appointed the longstanding political fixer and friend of the Labour Party, Peter Mandelson, to the prestigious role of British Ambassador to the United States.

To make a former political figure rather than a professional diplomat to Britain’s most prestigious diplomatic role, was a highly unusual move. But Starmer got his Labour Party friend in post.

Within months, in September 2025, when Mandelson’s relationship with the convicted sex offender who preyed on minors came under intense scrutiny, Starmer stood by his man saying he had “full confidence” in his friend. The very next day, Mandelson was sacked.

Following the release by the US Department of Justice of documents containing personal and insidious emails between Epstein and Mandelson, Starmer made a desperate attempt to save his own political skin by putting on his lawyerly acting skills to say he was the victim of Mandelson’s continual lies about his corrupt relationship with Epstein.

Mandelson's links to Epstein were well documented and yet Starmer appointed him knowing full well of the immoral, deceptive and shameful friendship Mandelson had with the convicted sexual predator.

Despite this, Starmer spent the last week trying to deflect responsibility for this scandal onto others, this time blaming the vetting process led by Britain’s intelligence services.

On Friday, the Conservatives released an explosive dossier in the form of a mocked-up due-diligence report covering in detail publicly available information about Mandelson before his pal the Prime Minister promoted him to the Ambassador role.

The dossier contained disturbing examples of Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein even after his conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. There are photographs of Mandelson at Epstein’s birthday party and friendly socialising together which were all public and in the press well before Mandelson flew off to become our US Ambassador.

And it highlights Epstein's business dealings with Mandelson, including the financier brokering a meeting between the Labour peer and a leading banker in a period when British taxpayers were loaded with the costs of bailing out the banks and people were losing their jobs because of the financial crisis.

So when Starmer said that “none of us knew the depths and the darkness” of the relationship with Epstein, he was lying.

He was lying to the British public and lying to the victims of Epstein’s appalling crimes.

And when this week the Conservative Party demanded the release of the Mandelson papers, Starmer shamefully tried to block the truth about what he knew from seeing the light of day, by claiming publishing the papers might harm our national security.

Our national security and interests were compromised by the deviant actions of Peter Mandelson when he gave market sensitive information to his ex predator friend. It can be argued that his actions were not only contrary to the national interests of our country but even potentially the Official Secrets Act.

In the coming weeks, we will see the full extent of Mandelson’s lies and deceit being published. We will call for all the details to be scrutinised, including his role over the shameful Chagos Surrender Deal which he lobbied the US administration to back. This is a treacherous surrender deal, and the public has a right to know what Mandelson, a serial liar, may have told our allies in a bid to ram the deal through.

We now know the Americans raised concerns about his appointment. But Starmer ignored them, just like he chose to ignore the damning evidence about Mandelson’s close friendship with a criminal sexual predator.

It is shocking and shameful that Britain’s Prime Minister, the man responsible for promoting and hiring Mandelson, sought to cover up the truth.

Over the last 18 months, Starmer’s corrosive government has sought to get through scandal after scandal. From Angela Rayner’s self-serving tax avoidance to his anti-corruption minister being subject to corruption charges, Starmer’s Labour Government has sought to put personal interest above integrity.

That’s why Kemi Badenoch’s dramatic offer to Labour MPs to put the country first and hold a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister is right.

Right now, the Labour government is in paralysis and ruined by its own corrosive levels of sleaze.

Starmer needs to show some backbone and take responsibility for this appalling scandal and put our country first and resign.