Keir Starmer looks as doomed as John Major back in the 1990s. Conservative Prime Minister John Major had pledged to get “back to basics” and promote “self-discipline and respect for the law”. But his party suffered a series of scandals involving affairs, children born out of wedlock and financial irregularities.
To voters, it seemed the Tories were mired in sleaze, and there was nothing Sir John could do to change their minds. Even today, Labour can talk about “Tory sleaze” whenever there is a whiff of impropriety in the Conservative Party, and some older voters will nod their heads knowingly.
When you lose your reputation it’s very hard indeed to get it back.
Sir Keir Starmer pledged last year to “clean up politics”. He pledged: “I will restore standards in public life with a total crackdown on cronyism.”
But what’s happened? This Government has seen ex-Transport Secretary Louise Haigh resign after it emerged she committed fraud in a job before politics, former anti-corruption Minister Tulip Siddiq investigated for corruption, ex-homelessness Minister Rushanara Ali pushing up rents for her tenants, and former Housing Secretary Angela Rayner resigning for failing to pay the correct taxes when buying a property.
And now, the UK’s ambassador to the US has been sacked less than a week before President Trump visits the UK, over his bizarre friendship with a sex offender.
It stinks. And this isn’t just about sleaze. It also raises questions about Sir Keir Starmer’s judgment.
The UK’s ambassadors are meant to be career diplomats, unlike in the US where presidents appoint their political allies.
Before Lord Mandelson we had Dame Karen Pierce, previously the UK’s representative in Afghanistan and then the United Nations. Before her the last permanent appointment was Kim Darroch (now Lord Darroch), previously our representative in the European Union.
These were career diplomats, who worked their way up the ladder as foreign office mandarins.
What drove Keir Starmer to hand the plum job of Ambassador to the US to Lord Mandelson, an undoubted political genius but a man with a taste for the high life, known to enjoy the company of billionaires, who was known to have been a friend of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Of course, there were people who enjoyed the company of Mr Epstein before discovering what he was really like. Perhaps they can’t be blamed for that. But a 2019 report by JP Morgan bank, filed in a New York court, stated that Lord Mandelson stayed at Epstein’s Manhattan flat in 2009 while the financier was serving an 18-month sentence for procuring a person under the age of 18 for prostitution.
Why didn’t Sir Keir sense danger?
The precise details of the Mandelson affair, the names and the dates and the allegations, may fade from public consciousness soon. But voters will remember that there is something unpleasant and untrustworthy about the Labour Party, and that Sir Keir seems to have a habit of appointing the wrong people.
And if they lose confidence in Sir Keir, it will be gone for good.