- Mandelson damaged the party and confidence in politics: McSweeney.
- He believes that “the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong.”
- His resignation comes as the ministry reviews Mandelson’s exit payment.
LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief of staff resigned on Sunday following the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, despite his links to US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“After careful consideration, I have decided to resign from the government. The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself,” Downing Street chief of staff Morgan McSweeney said in a statement.
“I advised the Prime Minister to make this appointment and I take full responsibility for this advice,” he added.
The 48-year-old Irishman has always kept a low profile but has been dubbed by some as “the most powerful man in politics” having played a key role in Starmer’s emphatic election victory in July 2024.
He is credited with helping to shift the Labor Party towards a more centrist political agenda after the ill-fated term of former left-wing leader Jeremy Corbyn.
He was also said to have been close to Mandelson, who had already helped former Prime Minister Tony Blair transform the party and its fortunes in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The resignation comes as the Foreign Office said it was considering a severance package for Mandelson, who was sacked by Starmer last September over his friendship with Epstein.
Mandelson, a central figure in British politics and the Labor Party for decades, received compensation estimated at between $52,000 and $74,000 after just seven months on the job, according to a report by the Sunday hours.
Documents released on January 30 by the US Department of Justice appear to show that Mandelson leaked confidential British government information to financier Epstein when he was a British minister, including during the 2008 financial crisis.
The revelation put intense pressure on Starmer and sparked a police investigation into Mandelson, 72, for alleged misconduct in public office.
The Foreign Office said in a statement that it had launched an investigation into Mandelson’s severance package “in light of additional information that has come to light and the ongoing police investigation.”
Minister Pat McFadden had earlier insisted Starmer must remain in office despite his “terrible mistake” in appointing Mandelson.
He said the real blame lay “squarely” on Mandelson for running for the job despite knowing the extent of his relationship with Epstein.
‘Regrets’
Starmer’s deputy David Lammy has become the first minister to appear to distance himself from the prime minister, according to a report from the Sunday Telegraph.
The deputy prime minister was not supportive of Mandelson’s appointment because of his known links to Epstein, friends of Lammy were quoted as saying by the report.
Starmer’s Labor Party took power just over 18 months ago in a landslide election victory.
But it lags behind Nigel Farage’s anti-immigrant Reform UK party, with the government under fire over immigration, economic growth and the cost of living crisis.
Reform UK came top by double digits in polls last year.
Mandelson, also a former European Union trade commissioner, resigned from Parliament’s unelected upper house, the House of Lords, earlier this week.
The ex-envoy was one of several figures further embarrassed by last week’s latest revelations about his ties to financier Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while facing charges of alleged sex trafficking.
US authorities have ruled Epstein’s death a suicide.
A spokesperson for the Mishcon de Reya law firm, representing Mandelson, said he “regrets, and will regret until his death, believing Epstein’s lies about his criminality.”
“Lord Mandelson only discovered the truth about Epstein after his death in 2019. He is deeply sorry that helpless and vulnerable women and girls did not receive the protection they deserved,” the law firm said.
Starmer paid tribute to McSweeney in a statement. It was “largely due to his dedication, loyalty and leadership that we achieved an overwhelming majority,” he said.
“Our party and I owe him a lot of gratitude,” he added.
