Starmer says won't quit after losing 2 aides over Mandelson-Epstien ties

British prime minister Keir Starmer pledged to press on with his agenda as the departure of a second senior aide in 24 hours left his grip on power appearing increasingly tenuous.

 

The resignation of Starmer’s communications director, Tim Allan, on Monday, after just five months on the job will feed the sense of crisis engulfing his office. The prime minister was already reeling from the departure on Sunday of his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney. 

 

In his remarks to his staffers, Starmer praised McSweeney’s contribution to Labour’s political revival in recent years and signalled that he intended to fight on as prime minister. “We must prove that politics can be a force for good. I believe it can. I believe it is,” Starmer said, according to a statement. “We go forward from here. We go with confidence as we continue changing  the country.” He was  due to address members of parliamentary Labour later on Monday. 

 

Labour’s top representative in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, became the party’s most high-profile official to call on Starmer to step down in a briefing on Monday. 

 

Starmer has come under fire over the 2024 appointment of Labour politician Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US, after the extent of Mandelson’s relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was revealed in files released by the US Justice Department.

 

Allan’s exit will leave another void inside Starmer’s depleted brain trust. McSweeney and Allan had been locked in a power struggle and aides risked descending into open infighting, according to sources. 

 

“I have decided to stand down to allow a new No. 10 team to be built,” Allan said in a statement on Monday.