Ex-Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has told friends that she warned Sir Keir Starmer not to appoint Lord Mandelson as the UK’s Ambassador to the US.Ms Rayner, who resigned from the Cabinet just months before Lord Mandelson was unveiled as Sir Keir’s top man in Washington, is said to have privately warned the Prime Minister that appointing Lord Mandelson would be a mistake due to his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Sir Keir has been accused of ignoring Ms Rayner’s advice after believing Lord Mandelson “barely knew” Epstein, The Times has reported.Ms Rayner’s allies made the claims after the Prime Minister told Labour MPs at Chequers that he would carry on and “rise to the challenge” of winning over the public.
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The Prime Minister said: “We must not lose what brought us here, which is the politics of service and making a difference. “Because that behaviour [of Mandelson] challenges what we stand for and that is corrosive and a challenge. We must rise to that challenge.”However, Sir Keir’s premiership has been left on the brink over the scandal.The Prime Minister sparked a furious backlash from Labour MPs after appearing to admit he knew that Lord Mandelson visited Epstein ahead of appointing him as the UK’s Ambassador to the US. Sir Keir said: “As the House would expect, we went through a process. There was a due diligence exercise and then there was security vetting by the security services.“What was not known was the depth, the sheer depth and extent of the relationship. He lied about that to everyone for years.“New information was published in September, showing the relationship was materially different to what we’d been led to believe.“When the new evidence came to light, I sacked him, but we did go through a due diligence exercise. The points that are being put to me were dealt with within that exercise.”LATEST DEVELOPMENTS’He needs to go!’ Zia Yusuf tears into Keir Starmer’s ‘cold-blooded’ leadershipPolice search Lord Mandelson’s homes as part of Jeffrey Epstein investigation’We can’t go on like this!’ Keir Starmer handed brutal takedown while Labour ‘feathers own nest’However, Labour MP Graham Stringer told GB News that the Prime Minister is now “finished”.Speaking to The People’s Channel, Mr Stringer said: “It’s embarrassing some of the policy documents that have gone out and some of the policy decisions, talk about Chagos or the failure to reform the benefits system.”There are a whole series of things that are embarrassing. But overall [the Mandelson scandal] is just simply appalling, and we have to put it right.”Again, I’ve said in this studio, we should give the Prime Minister time to put it right. He’s not put it right. He’s dug himself deeper into a hole.“The apology he made today, it wasn’t a completely full but he should have started yesterday [with it].”Be honest, promise the documents and say, ‘I am sorry, I did it for the best reasons but I misjudged it’.”It wouldn’t have completely absolved him but it would have stopped the leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch, nailing him because he wasn’t forthright to begin with.”Ms Rayner is now said to be ready to launch a bid to oust Sir Keir. However, Sir Keir’s allies have briefed that rebels would force a General Election if Ms Rayner ends up in No10. A Labour figure told The Telegraph: “Presumably Angela Rayner, if she got elected, would have a completely different agenda. If you come in with a completely different agenda then the country legitimately says, ‘We didn’t vote for this’.“And so what are the grounds for refusing a general election? You can claim constitutional grounds, but in the world of frenzied media, of TikTok, YouTube and GB News, is it really sustainable? It doesn’t feel sustainable to me.”A Cabinet Minister added: “The pressure for an election would be enormous.”
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