DAN HODGES: The PM’s human shield has gone. Ministers tell me it’s just a matter of time before Starmer goes too

During yesterday’s media tour, Pat McFadden, widely regarded as the most sober and politically experienced member of the cabinet, was asked whether it was time for Keir Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney to resign. ‘I don’t think it will make any difference,’ he said.

Five hours later, after a morning of harsh rejections from Downing Street, McSweeney was gone.

Unfortunately for the Prime Minister and his allies, McFadden was right when he ludicrously tried to explain that this was drawing a line under the Mandelson crisis. It will not change Sir Keir’s fate in any way.

First of all, the Prime Minister’s last human shield is gone. There is now no one left to absorb the impact of this political scandal other than Starmer himself.

Police investigation. There is a lawsuit that could follow. The Cabinet Office’s due diligence file on Mandelson will be published soon; This dossier will show in black and white that Starmer was publicly warned about his continued close relationship with Jeffery Epstein following his first conviction for pedophilia.

Additional messages to Mandelson from a range of senior government officials will all reveal the extent to which he is pulling the strings of the Starmer administration. The trickle of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Epstein files continues.

Ser Keir threw the last bit of ballast out of the balloon. Nothing can stop him from falling to the ground now.

McSweeney’s resignation also blows a huge hole in Sir Keir’s increasingly incomprehensible defense of appointing Mandelson.

He claimed on Thursday that he had ‘no reason not to believe’ Mandelson’s claim that he ‘barely knew’ Epstein. McSweeney resigned and acknowledged that there were very concrete reasons not to believe him.

The first paragraph of the resignation letter clearly states: ‘The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong.’

So if McSweeney’s role in this appointment was a matter of resignation, it is hard to see how Starmer, who ultimately made the decision, could continue to evade his own role in the saga.

Even if he wants it, it is not yet clear how long his colleagues will allow him this luxury.

The sad truth is that McSweeney has more friends in government than the Prime Minister. And yesterday they were spitting blood at his collapse. ‘That’s why there are many of us who will overcome the walls. ‘The people shooting at him better be careful what they wish for,’ one warned.

Another observed: ‘If we believe these briefings that Keir has been thinking about a new chief of staff for some time, then he is planning to create a sacrificial lamb while claiming responsibility.’

Starmer does not have enough allies to defend him against the wave of rage that is sweeping him from across his party. In fact, it is not entirely clear what the Prime Minister actually means by McSweeney’s departure.

Ask any Labor Minister or MP and they will admit the same thing. Starmerism was actually a McSweeney construct. As one of McSweeney’s friends famously noted, ‘Keir isn’t driving the train. ‘He thinks he’s driving the train, but we made him sit in front of the DLR.’

The Prime Minister knows that he bears ultimate responsibility for Mandelson’s appointment. Picture: Prime Minister and Mandelson last year

Even before yesterday’s resignation, a consensus had begun to emerge within the Cabinet and parliamentary party that Starmer could no longer continue in Downing Street.

As a Minister told me, ‘the situation is no longer irreparable’. But with Andy Burnham out of parliament, Angela Rayner awaiting the outcome of an HMRC investigation into her tax affairs and Wes Streeting tainted by his friendship with Mandelson, there was also a sense that an immediate leadership race was in short supply.

As a result, discussions over the weekend began to center around the appointment of a caretaker leader. ‘He might be someone with some experience and steady hands. “But who wouldn’t want to be considered for this job in the long run,” I was told. The names of Hillary Benn, Yvette Cooper and John Healey are being discussed.

McSweeney’s departure intensified these discussions. Even previously loyal ministers are now concluding that the crisis must end as soon as possible. ‘This is bad,’ someone told me, ‘it can’t go on like this.’

However, those who wonder what McSweeney’s self-sacrificing behavior means for the Prime Minister should first focus on the words written by the former chief of staff in his farewell letter.

‘ When asked, I advised the prime minister to make this appointment and I take full responsibility for this recommendation. Responsibility in public life should be embraced not only when it is most convenient, but when it is most important. The only honorable action under these circumstances would be to step aside.’

Last week, I wrote that, despite some ridicule, Keir Starmer was a decent man, for all his faults. I still think so, and I believe McSweeney’s words will resonate.

The Prime Minister knows that he bears ultimate responsibility for Mandelson’s appointment. He is well aware of the importance he attached to restoring the damaged trust of the public in public officials when he took office. And he realizes the truth in McSweeney’s words about responsibility.

It is unthinkable that Keir Starmer will try to drag out this disgusting, disgusting saga for much longer. Or that he would appreciate the spectacle of throwing his longest-serving and most loyal aide under the bus to save his own life.

McSweeney’s resignation is a symbolically pivotal political moment. But Pat McFadden was right. Ultimately it doesn’t change anything.

The Prime Minister’s fate was sealed in the House of Commons last Wednesday when he finally admitted to Kemi Badenoch that he had been told about Peter Mandelson’s ongoing friendship with the world’s worst child abuser. But regardless, he chose to appoint him as ambassador to Washington.

Yesterday Morgan McSweeney walked away from Downing Street. Keir Starmer will soon follow.