When Sir Keir Starmer was elected prime minister in July 2024, swept to power in a landslide victory, the British people thought they knew what they were getting: a former director of public prosecutions and dedicated public servant, pragmatic in approach and ethical in outlook, who would put an end to the drama and declinism of the tail end of 14 years of Conservative government. In his first speech in office, Sir Keir promised a government that would “restore service and respect to politics, end the era of noisy performance, tread more lightly on your lives, and unite our country”. He invited the public “to join this government of service in the mission of national renewal”. For many, it represented a genuine moment of hope.
Just 18 months later, how is that promise faring now? Damaged and obscured, as scandal swirls around Downing Street, centring on how much the prime minister knew about Lord Mandelson’s links to the late paedophile and financier Jeffrey Epstein before the peer was appointed US ambassador in February last year. On Wednesday, Sir Keir told the House of Commons that he had indeed been made aware, through initial security vetting, of Lord Mandelson’s close relationship to Epstein even after the latter’s conviction on child prostitution offences. For the vast majority of British people, working purely on an instinctive understanding of right and wrong, that fact alone would be enough to bar any nominee from what remains the most influential UK diplomatic post in the world. Yet Sir Keir, even with his wealth of legal experience, seemingly allowed himself to be persuaded otherwise by advisers such as Morgan McSweeney, and by Lord Mandelson himself allegedly misrepresenting the true extent of his connections. The prime minister’s personal malleability and political myopia, so sharply illustrated by that flawed decision, form the key to much else that has gone awry in a rudderless government.
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The central plank on which all other government policies were to be constructed — economic growth — was weakened early on by the first budget of Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, which piled costs on to employers. This in itself was necessitated by a campaign strategy that prioritised a decisive election victory over the actual business of governance, and tightly tied the future government’s hands by promising no increases in income tax, employees’ national insurance or VAT. Meanwhile, a broader sense of strategic confusion has deepened as Sir Keir frequently unveils a policy — from cutting winter fuel payments, to welfare reform, to mandatory ID cards — only to abandon it in the face of restless backbenchers. Into this void have stepped some old hands of the Blair era, overly confident of their political judgment and arrogantly careless of process.
Lord Mandelson’s full national security vetting, unbelievably, began only after his appointment as ambassador had been announced. The national security adviser, Jonathan Powell — Tony Blair’s former chief of staff — was parachuted in as a special adviser rather than through the time-honoured route of the civil service, a shift which shields him from normal parliamentary scrutiny. The initiatives linked to Mr Powell, such as the Chagos Islands deal or the recent “reset” in relations with China, have been either disastrous or unimpressive. And now, with Lord Mandelson, a curtain has lifted on a long vista of moral mire.
A rattled Sir Keir spoke on Thursday in Hastings, plaintively echoing his election-day talk of common good and national renewal. But saying so does not make it so. The UK is poorly governed, not by a leader but by an overly powerful clutch of advisers who appear to believe they are cleverer than they are. Somewhere deep within Sir Keir there may still be a prime minister with a confident vision for Britain. But if there is, he has almost run out of time to make that man known.
