Epstein Fallout Costs Starmer His Chief of Staff

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's top aide resigned Sunday over the appointment of an ambassador to the US with ties to American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Morgan McSweeney had recommended Peter Mandelson, a longtime associate, for the position to the prime minister, a decision he said in a statement Sunday was wrong and "damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself," the New York Times reports. Members of Starmer's Labour Party and the opposition Conservatives had been pressuring him to fire his chief of staff since the Justice Department's latest release of files in the Epstein case.

Emails in the release suggest that Mandelson, when he was the government's business secretary during the 2008 financial crisis, sent market-sensitive information to Epstein during the 2008 financial crisis, per the AP. Starmer defended Mandelson after an earlier release included a note the ambassador had written surfaced in Epstein's infamous birthday book but then fired him last fall. The fallout threatens Starmer's position in addition to now costing him his principal adviser. "Keir Starmer has to take responsibility for his own terrible decisions," said Kemi Badenoch, the Conservatives' leader. The BBC reports that chief of staff is "the top position in cabinet and one of the government's most powerful roles."

London police searched Mandelson's home and another property linked to him on Friday, per the AP. They said their investigation focuses on potential misconduct in public office, not sexual crimes; authorities have not publicly accused Mandelson of any crime. McSweeney is a protege of Starmer's who managed his winning campaign for leadership of the party in 2020. Starmer's harder lines on immigration and crime have been attributed to McSweeney's advice, per the BBC, an effort to help Labour bounce back from its overwhelming loss in the 2019 election.