Keir Starmer still has “confidence in his top team” despite his government being mired in scandal and controversy in recent weeks.
Labour MPs are furious with the Prime Minister and his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney after the sacking of Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to Washington over his links to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
This came hard on the heels of last week’s cabinet reshuffle, which was sparked by Angela Rayner’s resignation over her purchase of enough stamps.
Before that, it was all the Prime Minister doing his team’s No.
Labour MPs are now openly speculating about how long Starmer can survive as prime minister, just 14 months after he led the party to a landslide election victory.
At a press briefing on Friday, his spokesman said: “Of course the Prime Minister is confident in her top team and they are continuing this important work of government.”
The various crises facing the government come ahead of Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK next week, where Starmer hopes to finalise a UK-US trade deal.
However, given the US president’s previous ties to Epstein, this event could well have been overshadowed by the Mandelson case.
