UK prime minister Keir Starmer has insisted he will lead Labour into the next general election, but said appointing Peter Mandelson ambassador to the United States was a “mistake”.
Starmer’s authority has been damaged in recent weeks by the controversies surrounding the appointments of Mandelson and Matthew Doyle despite their association with sex offenders, three departures from Downing Street and a call from the Scottish Labour leader for him to resign.
Speaking to the Sun on Sunday at the Munich Security Conference, Starmer came out fighting against suggestions he should resign, and reports of plots within Labour to oust him.
He told the newspaper: “I won the leadership of the Labour Party when people said I wouldn’t. I changed the Labour Party when people said I couldn’t. I won an election when people said we wouldn’t.
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“And now I intend to change the country – whatever other people say.”
Starmer then insisted he would “absolutely” lead Labour into the next election.
Elsewhere in the interview, Starmer was asked if appointing Mandelson as US ambassador was his biggest mistake since he took office.
He replied: “I’m not going to list mistakes in rank order. It was a mistake.”
[ First Mandelson, now Doyle: The scandals keep coming for Keir StarmerOpens in new window ]
Speaking at the conference, Starmer had earlier insisted he “ended the week much stronger” than he started it after a period of political turbulence.
He was asked in a panel discussion after his speech whether the turmoil had left him vulnerable to challenges from Reform UK and the Tories.
tarmer replied: “No, I reject that. I ended the week much stronger than I started it. And that’s a very good place to be, and my party and my government is completely united on the question of Ukraine and defence and security and the need for stronger relations with Europe on defence, on security and on economy as well.
“And so I think that there is real strength in the position I’ve now set out.”
Attacking Nigel Farage’s “pro-Putin” Reform UK party, Starmer suggested it was the only faction in the House of Commons not behind the UK’s support for Ukraine.
“Imagine if they were in government in the United Kingdom. The Coalition of the Willing could not exist without UK participation in it. We would not be seen as a leader on the European or international stage. We would be seen as a country that people couldn’t do business with.
“So it’s not universal across our parliament, but there’s a very strong feeling amongst right-minded politicians that we stick together on Ukraine.”
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar had said on Monday that Starmer should quit in the wake of the scandal around the appointment of Mandelson as British ambassador to Washington despite his links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
But the attempt to oust Starmer failed, with members of the cabinet publicly backing him in the hours after Sarwar’s statement.
Further questions about Starmer’s judgment were thrown up later in the week in a row over the appointment of his former spin doctor Doyle to the House of Lords after the aide campaigned for a paedophile councillor.
The departure of the head of the civil service Chris Wormald prompted criticism of negative briefings in government, while senior Labour women suggested the string of scandals had exposed a “boys’ club” within Downing Street.
Wormald was the third senior figure to quit the British government in the past week, following Starmer’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney and communications director Tim Allan. – PA
