Shame duck PM
THE toxic fallout from the Peter Mandelson scandal has left Keir Starmer seriously, if not yet fatally, wounded.
The Prime Minister’s fumbling defence of his own terrible decision to hire Mandelson as the UK’s Ambassador to Washington led to a savaging in the Commons yesterday.
As a result, he is now unable to control events or his own party.
During a brutal day, he was forced by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch to admit vetting by the security services HAD mentioned Mandelson’s close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
That begged the question: Why on earth did Starmer go ahead with his appointment?
That wasn’t just a crazy political risk, it was a shocking dereliction of duty from No10.
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Effectively, he received the warnings but ignored them . . . and went ahead anyway.
Starmer’s only hope of defending that disastrous choice was to be as open and honest as possible.
Instead, he tried to fight calls to release all the files relating to the vetting, citing “national security” concerns.
That a rebellion by Labour backbenchers — led by leadership rival Angela Rayner, of all people — then forced him into another U-turn will have been as painful for the PM as it was embarrassing.
The files will now be reviewed by Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, meaning the PM faces further damaging revelations at an unknown point in the future.
Meanwhile, his plan to release papers which he claims back-up his story that Mandelson is a serial liar was scuppered by the cops, worried about prejudicing their own investigations.
Starmer is now forever tied to Mandelson’s ultimate fate — which could include a long-running police inquiry, criminal trial and prison.
That’s if he even lasts that long.
Norman Lamont once said that Tory PM John Major gave “the impression of being in office, but not in power”.
The same can now be said of this Prime Minister, too.
Miles off target
SHABANA MAHMOOD says there is “no silver bullet” to stopping the boats.
The problem for the Home Secretary is that since taking office the Government has been firing blanks.
It inherited one useful weapon from the Tories — the Rwanda scheme that WAS already working to deter migrants from coming to Britain.
But incredibly, the Government didn’t tell the Rwandan Government formally they were scrapping it until December, 18 months after taking office, and are now facing a £100million legal claim from Rwanda.
That’s just one more costly bungle in an expensive litany of failure.
