What does Peter Mandelson drama tell us about Keir Starmer?
Prime minister’s judgement is under fresh scrutiny over the appointment of controversial Labour grandee

Peter Mandelson has been appointed to the three most recent Labour governments and has now been fired from all three.
Douglas Alexander, the Scotland secretary, told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “In different ways, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Keir Starmer have all recognised that Peter Mandelson brought both high risks and potentially very high rewards.”
But pressure is growing on Starmer to explain why he thought that risk was worth taking as Conservatives demand the publication of all vetting material and some Labour MPs criticise the PM for appointing Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the US in the first place.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What did the commentators say?
It’s “now increasingly clear” that Starmer has “zero political nous whatsoever”, said Madeline Grant in The Spectator, and a “combination of arrogance, inexperience and ineptitude" has "robbed him of any judgement whatsoever”.
Mandelson is gone but “questions about the prime minister’s judgement remain”, said the BBC. He decided that “being friends with a convicted paedophile in the past should not exclude someone from high public office”, but further details this week “changed the PM’s view”. Many Labour MPs think Starmer “should have seen this scandal a mile off”.
His “public image is one of stolid caution”, said Emma Burnell in The Guardian, but if you “look more closely” you’ll “see that Starmer is actually something of a political risk-taker”. At PMQs this week, his “buttoned-up persona” and “risk-taking” were “both on display” when he “took a leap by vocally standing by Mandelson” and “fell back on the fact that Mandelson was vetted for the role”.
Even before he “bowed to the inevitable”, the prime minister’s “judgement” was “under fresh scrutiny”, said Kitty Donaldson in The i Paper, because “what was obvious to the backbenchers appeared to be less clear to No. 10”. He was “already seen as out of touch” with his MPs and now he’s “facing serious questions about his future”.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Where he “once claimed sole custody of what few ethics were left in Westminster”, said Patrick Maguire in The Times, in just six days he’s “lost two of his government’s household names to scandals whose details might have been designed to vindicate the public’s disappearing trust in the political mainstream”.
His “programme for government” is a "knapsack of heirlooms rescued from the homes of Labour’s extended family” – “by turns it is soft left, then old right”. You "could call this a very Keirish preference for practicality over faction”, but “more likely, you’d call it incoherent”.
What next?
The outgoing chief of MI6 has emerged as “one of the early frontrunners” to replace Mandelson, said The Telegraph – Richard Moore would "bring decades of experience”. Other favourites in the “chatter” include Mark Sedwill, Boris Johnson’s national security adviser, and Barbara Woodward, Britain’s permanent representative to the UN.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump arrives in the UK next week and the fuss around the vacant US ambassador role “casts a shadow” over Trump’s “upcoming state visit”, said Beth Rigby on Sky News. If a replacement can’t be installed before the US president arrives, interim ambassador James Roscoe will lead preparations for the visit.
Chas Newkey-Burden has been part of The Week Digital team for more than a decade and a journalist for 25 years, starting out on the irreverent football weekly 90 Minutes, before moving to lifestyle magazines Loaded and Attitude. He was a columnist for The Big Issue and landed a world exclusive with David Beckham that became the weekly magazine’s bestselling issue. He now writes regularly for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, Metro, FourFourTwo and the i new site. He is also the author of a number of non-fiction books.
-
Supreme Court rules for Fed’s Cook in Trump feud
Speed Read Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook can remain in her role following Trump’s attempts to oust her
-
US tipped to help Kyiv strike Russian energy sites
Speed Read Trump has approved providing Ukraine with intelligence for missile strikes on Russian energy infrastructure
-
‘This isn’t just semantics’
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Your Party: a Pythonesque shambles
Talking Point Comical disagreements within Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana's group highlight their precarious position
-
Behind the ‘Boriswave’: Farage plans to scrap indefinite leave to remain
The Explainer The problem of the post-Brexit immigration surge – and Reform’s radical solution
-
Can the Lib Dems be a party of government again?
Today's Big Question Leader Ed Davey is urged to drop the stunts and present a serious plan for the country
-
What is Donald Trump’s visit worth to the UK economy?
In the Spotlight Centrepiece of the president’s trip, business-wise, is a ‘technology partnership’
-
Is Andy Burnham making a bid to replace Keir Starmer?
Today's Big Question Mayor of Manchester on manoeuvres but faces a number of obstacles before he can even run
-
Angela Rayner: the rise and fall of a Labour stalwart
In the Spotlight Deputy prime minister resigned after she underpaid £40,000 in stamp duty
-
Will Donald Trump’s second state visit be a diplomatic disaster?
Today's Big Question Charlie Kirk shooting, Saturday’s far-right rally and continued Jeffrey Epstein fallout ramps-up risks of already fraught trip
-
Peter Mandelson called Epstein his 'best pal' in birthday note
Speed Read The UK's ambassador to Washington described the late convicted paedophile as an 'intelligent, sharp-witted man'