THE sacking of Peter Mandelson felt inevitable – so why did Sir Keir Starmer give him such a public display of support?
Just yesterday the PM stood at the House of Commons despatch box and put a metaphorical arm around his embattled US ambassador.
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Less than 24 hours later and he has unceremoniously fired him.
The official explanation is new information had emerged – namely gruesome emails written by Mandelson to paedophile pal Jeffrey Epstein AFTER he had been charged with soliciting a minor.
In reality, he already knew at PMQs there was worse to come. Mandelson himself admitted as much to our Harry Cole in THAT bombshell interview yesterday.
Which again begs the question why the PM dithered in getting rid, and even sent his ministers into TV studios as late as this morning to defend the position.
They look pretty silly right now, and will themselves be rightly seething with Downing Street for sending them into the line of fire.
Many will rightly wonder why on earth Starmer appointed Mandelson in the first place knowing his past links with the billionaire creep.
It is controversial enough parachuting a political apparatchik into a diplomatic posting, let alone an ex-minister forced twice to resign in scandal during Tony Blair’s tenure.
And all of this just days into Downing Street’s much-hyped “Phase 2 reset” – a reset that has already seen Starmer lose his deputy prime minister.
To lose one senior member of your government might be considered unfortunate, to lose two is more than careless.
The judgement of a Prime Minister, who cruised into No10 on the backwash of Tory sleaze by promising to restore stability and integrity, is now under scrutiny.
How do you square his self-styled reputation as “Mr Rules” with the rollcall of Mandelson, Rayner, Louise Haigh, Andrew Gwynne, Tulip Siddiq, Rushanara Ali, Lord Ali?
It would be bad enough if the government were firing on all cylinders in other areas, but the scandals are even more glaring amid the current sense of drift and poor polling.
Allies will want to move on fast with some major course correction. Phase 3, anyone?
