On Wednesday 10 September, Keir Starmer defended Peter Mandelson at PMQs and told MPs he had ‘confidence’ in him, after Starmer was grilled about revelations of Mandelson’s gushing and suspicious emails to now-dead serial child-rapist and trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The following day, Starmer removed Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US, though not from the government payroll.
Starmer knew about Mandelson’s ‘yum yum’
But new revelations have confirmed that Starmer was fully aware of the incriminating emails before he went out to bat for the ex-ambassador at PMQs. A Times investigation by has confirmed that:
• 10 Downing Street and the Foreign Office (FCDO) had been aware, for at least 24 hours before PMQs, of the Epstein emails.
• Details of the newly-exposed batch of emails had been sent to the FCDO early on Tuesday.
• The FCDO immediately passed them to Number 10.
• He may receive a significant pay-off for ‘wrongful dismissal’.
• Number 10 is worried Mandelson will not ‘go quietly’ and may instigate a ‘disastrous HR process’.
Starmer still went out and defended Mandelson in the Commons on Wednesday and only removed him when Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, reportedly a long-time Mandelson protégé who pushed Starmer to appoint the former Blair minister, decided later on Wednesday that he had become too toxic.
Featured image via the Canary
By Skwawkbox
This post was originally published on Canary.