Starmer insists ‘vast majority’ of Labour MPs support him despite Mandelson scandal

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted the “vast majority” of Labor MPs support him despite the scandal that rocked his premiership with the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador.

The Prime Minister faces existential questions about his future in power, but has said he still believes he can win the next election, arguing that many in Parliament’s Labor Party are “supportive, loyal and just want to get on with the job”.

Sir Keir has faced calls to resign over the fallout from the investigation saga, which saw Lord Mandelson take over despite security services expressing concerns, and divisions are said to have emerged in the Cabinet over his handling of the process, including the decision to sack Foreign Office chief Sir Olly Robbins.

Meanwhile, Labor MPs are said to be increasingly frustrated with the chaos in government; If the local election results are as grim for the government as expected, many are looking at Wes Streeting or Angela Rayner as possible successors to Sir Keir.

But to talk Times About questions about your future, The Prime Minister said: “This kind of thing happens all the time in politics.

“There’s always talk. You never hear from people who are supportive, loyal and just want to get on with their job. And that’s the vast majority of people in the parliamentary Labor Party.

“They are happy to be in power. They expected to stay in power for a long time. And they just want to continue their work. They don’t make much noise about it. They don’t talk about it with journalists. What is reflected in these discussions is really important.”

This comes despite a poll of Labor Party members showing an overwhelming majority think Sir Keir mishandled the Mandelson affair.

But according to a Survation poll for Labor List, nearly two-thirds (61 per cent) thought he should not resign over the scandal, while 29 per cent said he should have resigned.

They are divided on whether Labor should change its leadership; 46 per cent are positive, while 44 per cent say Sir Keir should remain in office.

In the same interview, the prime minister insisted he thought he could win the next election, adding: “I think this will be a very important general election. It will most likely be Labor versus Reform. The decisive question in this election is: What is it to be British?”

“It is an election in which what I call patriotic values ​​— tolerance, kindness, life and let live, diversity — faces a challenge we have never seen before.”

His latest intervention comes after Lord Mandelson was accused of breaching the ministerial code after failing to announce a meeting with a client of his lobbying firm.

Accordingly TelegramThe Prime Minister and Lord Mandelson attended technology firm Palantir’s headquarters in Washington in February 2025.

They reported that although ministers are required to publish details of meetings with external organizations as part of ministerial regulations, the meeting was not recorded.

Downing Street told the newspaper the incident was not a meeting and therefore did not need to be recorded. However, the Ministry of Defense, which was reported to have attended, described it as a meeting.

Alex Burghart, shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, accused Sir Keir of breaching the ministerial code, widely seen as a resignation offence.

He added: “The public deserves to know who arranged this meeting, what was discussed and what Global Counsel’s client will gain.”

Next week the Prime Minister is likely to face a Commons vote that could trigger an inquiry into his handling of the inquiry saga.

The Prime Minister has repeatedly told MPs that he and his ministers only learned that UKSV had advised Lord Mandelson not to be given leave for the role last Tuesday evening. Independent last September, raising concerns that it had failed to review and failed to publish a front-page story about it.

Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle looks set to give MPs a say in whether the prime minister should be referred to the powerful House of Commons Privileges Committee for an investigation into whether he misled parliament about the appointment of his disgraced peer.

Sir Lindsay is expected to make a statement about the letters on Monday; This means Sir Keir could face a vote in the House of Commons on Tuesday – the same day his former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney will be grilled by MPs over his role in Lord Mandelson’s appointment.

But Cabinet minister Darren Jones insisted there was “no case to answer” when asked about the possibility of Sir Keir being referred to a tawdry inquiry and accused the Conservatives of “using tactics” ahead of local elections.

The minister told the BBC’s Sunday Morning with Laura Kuenssberg: “You must remember, what are these privileges committees about? The last time they were used was when Boris Johnson told the House of Commons that there was no party in Downing Street.”

“He was later shown to have been in five of them and received fines from the police. That’s what these processes are in place for, so the Opposition is just using tactics to distract from the fact that the government is doing good work in this pre-election period.”

Asked whether it was right to hold an investigation and clarify different interpretations of what happened, Mr Jones added: “As I understand the case, there is no case to answer.”

Labour’s huge majority in the House of Commons means such a vote will almost certainly not pass, but it could still harm the prime minister.

A government spokesman said: “Firstly, there are robust processes in place to ensure government contracts are awarded fairly and transparently.

“Ministers work with a number of companies as part of their international travel and Palantir is a long-standing investor in the UK.”