Brown: Starmer a man of integrity but faces serious task amid leadership speculation
As speculation over Starmer’s future as prime minister continues, Brown has come to his defence, saying he is “a man of integrity”.
But he acknowledged that Starmer is facing a “serious” battle to keep his job.
“I mean, there’s always speculation. It happened to me, it happened to Tony Blair. It happens to everybody about how their future should be gauged,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“But this is serious, and the task is very clear. The task is we’ve got to clean up the system, a total clean-up of the system, an end to the corruption and unethical behaviour. And if we don’t do it, we’ll pay a heavy price.”
When asked if Starmer was the right man to take the country forward, he said: “I can look in his eyes and I can see that he is a man of integrity. He wants to do the right things.
“Perhaps he’s been too slow to do the right things, but he must do the right things now, and let’s judge what he does, on what happens in the next few months when he tries to, and I believe (he) will try, to clean up the system.”
Key events
Meanwhile, in Gorton and Denton, Zack Polanski is campaigning with Green party candidate Hannah Spencer ahead of the byelection on 26 February. Spencer also brought her four greyhounds along, sporting party colour raincoats.
In case you missed it, the Guardian reported yesterday that Reform UK will face a police investigation in Gorton and Denton after admitting it sent out letters from a “concerned neighbour” which did not state they had been funded and distributed by the party.
Dozens of voters in the Greater Manchester constituency reported receiving letters from a pensioner written in a handwriting-style font. The letters do not include an imprint saying who they have been funded and distributed by, as required by electoral law.
Read the full report here:
Daniel Boffey
Away from the Mandelson scandal, Keir Starmer has been accused of hypocrisy after cutting funding to the World Food Programme (WFP) by a third while pledging to tackle “suffering and starvation”.
The reduction of UK funding to the WFP from $610m (£448m) in 2024 to $435m last year is part of a wider reduction in aid spending that campaigners said was putting lives at risk.
On top of the WFP cuts, government has also failed to make any financial pledge despite hosting a two-day conference last year on starvation and malnutrition in Afghanistan.
A government spokesperson said the UK remained the fifth largest donor to the WFP.
Michael Bates, a former Conservative aid minister in the House of Lords, said ministers were cutting funding as cases of starvation were growing “exponentially”.
He said:
If this was just a UK story it would be bad enough, but we are seeing it is a French story, it is a German story and a US story.
All these countries are cutting. There will be a time lag but this will cost lives. We have a responsibility to protect these lives.
The UK made it a commitment to spend 0.7% of gross national income on development in 2015 in order to align with a UN target. The Conservative government cut that commitment to 0.5%.
On entering government, Starmer told a G20 summit in Brazil that his administration would prioritise “the fight against hunger” and would tackle “suffering and starvation”.
But last year, Starmer announced that aid spending would be reduced to 0.3% of GDP from 2027, in order to increase defence spending to 2.5% of national income by 2027.
Geraldine McKelvie
Commenting on Rennard’s suspension, a Lib Dem spokesperson said:
Rennard has had the Liberal Democrat whip in the House of Lords and his party membership suspended, and the party is conducting a new investigation into these allegations.
The party has now received legal advice that the 2013 investigation into allegations against Rennard was flawed in several respects.
Ed Davey has made clear he believes Rennard should not be a member of the House of Lords and that it should be made easier for peers to be expelled from the Lords for serious misconduct.
You can read the full story here:
Lib Dem peer suspended from party
Geraldine McKelvie
The Liberal Democrat peer Chris Rennard has been suspended from the party amid a new investigation into sexual harassment allegations.
The party said it had received advice that a 2013 inquiry into the claims made by four women against Lord Rennard was “flawed in several respects”.
The Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, believes Rennard, 65, should not be a member of the House of Lords, the party added.
In turn, Rennard, a former chief executive of the party who was awarded a life peerage in 1999, pointed to a series of investigations by police and lawyers that had concluded the allegations against him could not be proved.
He previously said he was sorry if he had “inadvertently encroached” upon anyone’s “personal space”.
Three of the women involved in the original claim welcomed the move as “the first signs of change” by the party.
The former deputy party chair Alison Goldsworthy, the academic Alison Smith, and Bridget Harris, a former adviser to Nick Clegg, issued a joint statement after the latest developments.
They said:
We decided to speak out in 2013 so that future generations of women could participate in politics safely. We did not expect a fair investigation to take so long and hope that the next steps will finally put the matter to rest.
The fourth complainant, the former councillor Susan Gaszczak, resigned from the party in 2014 after the original investigation. She said at the time she “could no longer remain a member of a party that feels it acceptable for the then chief executive to invite me to his hotel room to advance my political career”.
Speaking of Polanski, the Guardian’s Simon Hattenstone has been on the road with the Green party leader, from protests and podcasts to Soho’s legendary Heaven nightclub.
You can read Simon’s piece here:
Green party leader Zack Polanski has called on Starmer to resign, claiming the Mandelson scandal “erodes trust in politics”.
Polanski said the PM “needs to go” after showing a “catastrophic level of misjudgment” by making Lord Mandelson the ambassador to the US.
He told the Press Association:
I think the Peter Mandelson scandal actually is bad for democracy in general. I think it erodes trust in politicians.
I think we already know that people deeply mistrust the political system and, actually, I just think it reflects on everyone really badly.
I do think Keir Starmer needs to go though.
Keir Starmer knew that Peter Mandelson was still friends with a notorious paedophile, was still staying in his house and he brought him into the heart of government because he knew he could whisper into Donald Trump’s ear.
That’s a catastrophic level of misjudgment. It wasn’t just one mistake – with Keir Starmer we’ve seen misjudgment after misjudgment.
Starmer claims he was misled by Mandelson over the extent of his ties to Epstein post-conviction.
Peter Walker
Reform UK’s flagship council has been accused of telling a “blatant lie” after its claim of nearly £40m in savings on net zero were found to be based on hypothetical projects for which there was no documentation.
Kent county council, which has a £2.5bn annual budget, is one of 10 where Nigel Farage’s party has outright control and is seen as a test case for whether the insurgent party can govern competently.
The council’s leadership claimed it has found £100m in savings, £39.5m of which come from what it said was two net zero-related projects: £32m by scrapping a programme to make properties more environmentally friendly, and £7.5m by not making the council’s fleet of vehicles electric by 2030.
After the council leader, Linden Kemkaran, announced these at a council meeting last July, Polly Billington, a Labour MP in Kent, requested details of the apparent savings via a freedom of information request, setting off a months-long battle with the council.
The eventual answer said the two projects were documented in two lines of a “potential capital projects” section of the council’s 2025-26 budget plans, but added they had no business cases or identified funding.
Read the full report here:
John McDonnell, a Labour MP and former shadow chancellor under Jeremy Corbyn, has questioned (again) why senior party figures did not raise concerns over Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador at the time. “I did,” he said in post on X.
He described Starmer as “a leader who in denial looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights” and railed against “deluded leadership contenders fighting like rats in a sack”.
He added: “If we are to save our party and Labour in government we need a thorough cleansing process which exposes not just the role Mandelson played but also the influence of other wealthy individuals and corporations and the way a brutal political culture has undermined party democracy.”
Summary of developments so far
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Amid mounting speculation that Keir Starmer could quit over the Mandelson scandal, Gordon Brown has described the prime minister as a “man of integrity” but said he faced a “serious” challenge to remain in his role.
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Police officers probing accusations relating to Peter Mandelson’s links with Jeffrey Epstein have concluded their search of two properties connected to the Labour peer in London and Wiltshire.
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Met police said its investigation “will take some time” and that “a significant amount of further evidence gathering and analysis” was needed.
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The Liberal Democrats have urged the Financial Conduct Authority to immediately investigate Mandelson, saying his apparent decision to leak highly confidential government information to Epstein may have led to insider trading.
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Brown said the alleged leaks put Britain “at risk” and could have caused “huge commercial damage”.
Mandelson investigation will ‘take some time’, Met police say as they conclude property searches
The Metropolitan police has provided an update on the searches of two properties linked to Mandelson.
In a statement this morning, the deputy assistant commissioner Hayley Sewart said the investigation into a 72-year-old man over alleged misconduct in public office would “take some time” after officers finished searching the properties in London and Wiltshire.
“He has not been arrested and enquiries are ongoing,” the statement read.
“This will be a complex investigation requiring a significant amount of further evidence gathering and analysis. It will take some time to do this work comprehensively and we will not be providing a running commentary.”
Scotland Yard launched its investigation after allegations that Mandelson sent market-sensitive information to Esptein while he was business secretary during the financial crisis in 2008.
Here are some images from the newswires last night showing police searching two properties connected to Mandelson:
Henry Dyer
A Labour minister commissioned and reviewed a report in 2023 on journalists investigating the thinktank that would help propel Keir Starmer to power, the Guardian has learned.
The research was paid for and subsequently reviewed by Josh Simons, now a minister in the Cabinet Office, when he was director of Labour Together, according to sources and documents seen by the Guardian.
Simons is close to the prime minister’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, who had previously run Labour Together and whose own role in the operation to gather material on journalists is under scrutiny.
In an agreement addressed to Simons, drawn up by the PR firm APCO Worldwide, the firm agreed to “investigate the sourcing, funding and origins” of a November 2023 Sunday Times report about the thinktank, in addition to other journalistic investigations into the group.
The agreement noted APCO would “establish who and what are behind the coordinated attacks on Labour Together”.
Read the full report here:
Starmer’s position ‘irredeemable’, says Kim Johnson
Several Labour MPs believe it is a matter of when, not if, Starmer will step down as prime minister, with one backbencher saying his position is “irredeemable”.
“I think he needs to seriously consider his position,” Kim Johnson, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, told Times Radio.
“He’s on the ropes and we have to think about the benefit of the country and the party. We have to consider the likelihood of what could happen, the stability of the country could be at stake.”
Rayner warned Starmer not to appoint Mandelson – report
Angela Rayner, Starmer’s former deputy, reportedly told the prime minister not to appoint Mandelson as US ambassador.
Rayner, who left government last year over the stamp duty row, told friends that she privately warned Starmer appointing Mandelson would be a mistake because of his links to Epstein, according to The Times.
While Rayner is widely viewed as a potential successor to Starmer, she is said to not want to be the one who launches a challenge against the prime minister, The Times reported.
Alleged leak to Epstein may have cause huge commercial damage, says Brown
Brown said the market-sensitive government information that Mandelson allegedly leaked to Epstein could have caused “huge commercial damage”.
The former prime minister, who appointed Mandelson as business secretary in his government in 2008, said he felt “shocked, sad, angry betrayed, let down”.
“This was financially secret information, it meant Britain was at risk because of that, the currency was at risk, some of the trading that would happen would be speculative as a result of that and there’s no doubt that huge commercial damage could have been done and perhaps was done,” Brown told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
It comes as the Liberal Democrats have urged the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK’s financial regulator, to immediately investigate Mandelson, saying the apparent leaks may have led to insider trading.
Daisy Cooper, the MP for St Albans and the Lib Dems’ deputy leader, wrote to the FCA saying the sharing of confidential information with a private financier “could easily have provided an unfair and lucrative advantage in the financial markets, either by Epstein himself or by his associates”.
Our banking correspondent Kalyeena Makortoff has more on this story below:
Police executed search warrants at two properties connected to Mandelson as part of an investigation into “misconduct in public office offences”. Officers searched a house near Regent’s Park in central London and a property in Wiltshire on Friday. Mandelson has been living in a rented property in Wiltshire since being sacked as ambassador to the US over his links to the late convicted child sex offender.
You can read our full report on this story here:
Brown: Starmer a man of integrity but faces serious task amid leadership speculation
As speculation over Starmer’s future as prime minister continues, Brown has come to his defence, saying he is “a man of integrity”.
But he acknowledged that Starmer is facing a “serious” battle to keep his job.
“I mean, there’s always speculation. It happened to me, it happened to Tony Blair. It happens to everybody about how their future should be gauged,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“But this is serious, and the task is very clear. The task is we’ve got to clean up the system, a total clean-up of the system, an end to the corruption and unethical behaviour. And if we don’t do it, we’ll pay a heavy price.”
When asked if Starmer was the right man to take the country forward, he said: “I can look in his eyes and I can see that he is a man of integrity. He wants to do the right things.
“Perhaps he’s been too slow to do the right things, but he must do the right things now, and let’s judge what he does, on what happens in the next few months when he tries to, and I believe (he) will try, to clean up the system.”
There is a systemic failure to do proper vetting in government, says Gordon Brown
Former prime minister Gordon Brown said there was a “systemic failure’ in the way senior appointments are carried out in government.
While he believed Starmer was “misled and he was betrayed” by Mandelson when appointing him as US ambassador, he said that it was “not sufficient explanation for what happened”.
“There is a systemic failure to do proper vetting, to go through the proper procedures and to actually have, in my view, what should be public hearings for anybody who is going to be in a senior position representing the British government,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Writing in the Guardian, Brown said he “greatly regrets” making Mandelson a peer and bringing him back into government in 2008 as business secretary. He said he was told at the time that Mandelson’s record as EU trade commissioner had been “unblemished” and he did not know about any Epstein links.
“No one could say I promoted him out of favouritism,” he wrote. “I did so in spite of him being anything but a friend to me, because I thought that his unquestioned knowledge of Europe and beyond could help us as we dealt with the global financial crisis.
“I now know that I was wrong.”
You can read Brown’s opinion piece in full here:
PM says ‘significant volume of material’ needs reviewing before Mandelson documents can be released
Good morning and welcome to our UK politics blog.
Prime minister Keir Starmer has said a “very significant volume of material” related to his appointment of Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US will need to be reviewed before any documents can be released.
Starmer believes the documents will prove Mandelson lied about the extent of his relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during the vetting process before he was given the top diplomatic job in Washington last year.
The prime minister had previously said he wanted to release the documents sooner and raise it at PMQs but was advised by police that doing so could risk prejudicing a future investigation or legal process.
Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), a cross-party group of MPs and peers with access to highly sensitive information, will play a role in sifting through the emails, messages and documents, which could number in the tens of thousands, before they are released into the public domain.
Starmer wrote a letter to Lord Beamish, the chairman of the ISC, saying: “It is important that documents are made available to parliament as soon as possible, noting that there is likely to be a very significant volume of material that will need to be reviewed to establish whether it is in scope.”
It has done little to quell the anger among Labour MPs over his handling of the scandal, with some publicly suggesting the prime minister should consider his position, while also calling for him to sack his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, who was instrumental in the decision to appoint Mandelson as US ambassador.
Meanwhile, Scotland Yard said enquiries were ongoing after police searched two properties connected to Mandelson as part of an investigation into claims that he passed market-sensitive information to Epstein.
Former prime minister Gordon Brown has said he “greatly regrets” making Mandelson a peer and appointing him to a ministerial role in 2008. Writing in the Guardian, Brown said the news that Mandelson was passing information to Epstein while he was business secretary was “a betrayal of everything we stand for as a country”.
