The Prime Minister is fighting for his life amid the biggest scandal since Profumo.
This week may well have been the beginning of the end for Keir Starmer (Image: PA)
It is often the curse of British prime ministers that the key trait that helped them secure the top job is precisely what brings them down. Margaret Thatcher was strong-headed and obstinate. Voters liked it in 1979 amid the economic crisis, Tory MPs detested it when it came to Europe in 1990.
John Major was boring, a nice contrast to Thatcher, but a trait that crumbled in the face of Tony Blair’s charisma. Boris Johnson was an election-winning machine who, despite his myriad scandals and personality defects, could help the party avoid defeat at the hands of Labour – up until Partygate and Chris Pincher, at which point the Tories unceremoniously ousted him. Keir Starmer appears set to fall victim to this same lesson from history – a man without purpose, vision or charisma, but someone who at least appeared a welcome contrast to the chaos, sleaze and uncertainty inflicted by the Conservatives.
That veneer was shattered entirely this week by a sleaze scandal that appears to put everything from cake in Downing Street to the Profumo affair of Harold Macmillan to shame.
The emperor has been revealed naked, and the first week of February 2026 is certain to go down as the week that ended Keir Starmer’s time in No 10.
Those who loathe Keir Starmer – and by jove, there are a lot of them now both in and out of the Labour Party – will need to take a breath, however. Do not believe the Prime Minister will be packing his bags next week.
Police raid Lord Mandelson’s house on Friday (Image: Getty)
The camel’s back is undoubtedly groaning under the intolerable weight of last straws. But it may still remain standing unless a brave rival is willing to give it a hefty – and public – final shove.
On Thursday Harriet Harman, the matriarch of the modern Labour Party not prone to hyperbole, said Keir Starmer’s eventual apology for appointing Lord Mandelson despite knowing about his relationship with Epstein left him looking “weak, naive and gullible”, and could “finish” him unless he brings about sweeping changes to his No. 10 operation.
Many furious Labour MPs have now honed in on trying to dispose of Morgan McSweeney, not so much Keir Starmer’s right-hand man as the shadowy puppet master who has been in charge of nearly all the political decisions this Prime Minister was intellectually incapable of making.
They believe the sacking of McSweeney would be a sacrifice large enough to take pressure out of the cooker without causing the chaos of a change of Prime Minister.
McSweeny’s fingerprints are all over the initial decision to hire Peter Mandelson as ambassador, with reports this week revealing Mandelson’s name had been nowhere near discussions until the ginger Svengali intervened.
But McSweeney’s relationship with the paedophile’s ‘best pal’ didn’t stop there, he also got Mandy involved with other crucial decisions that had nothing to do with his diplomatic brief, including candidate selection and reshuffle discussions.
Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner are both waiting in the wings (Image: Getty)
Unfortunately for McSweeney, he has little goodwill remaining in the Parliamentary Labour Party after building up an enormous amount of bad blood with its MPs over many years.
He was key in sidelining the left wing of the party in the wake of Jeremy Corbyn’s disastrous 2019 election result, sacking key members of the faction from the shadow cabinet, taking over the ruling executive committee, and erasing anything vaguely ‘Corbynite’ from the party’s policy platform.
While Sir Keir may be forced to sack his second chief of staff in as many years, he must know it stands no chance of saving his premiership.
Without McSweeney, Keir Starmer’s entire operation and reason for being in Downing Street fall apart.
There is no doubt that some of the Labour MPs calling for McSweeney to go know this all too well, and would welcome the consequences.
His friends in government remain stubbornly loyal, clinging to the story that McSweeney is a great operator who secured a 174-seat majority less than two years ago.
A government source told me their belief that winning the upcoming Gorton and Denton by-election will be enough to alleviate the current crisis and steady HMS Starmer – a wishful thought that would surpass the ability of any passing genie.
Keir Starmer’s crisis is that there are too many hurdles for him to leap over the coming months, and the Scandalson affair has left him with broken legs.
If he’s not gone in the next week, he has to clear the Gorton by-election; if that doesn’t finish him, he has to hurdle the local elections; if he staggers on through that, something else will come along that brings an end to Keir Starmer’s sad and pointless time in Downing Street.
And all the while Wes Streeting, Angela Rayner, Lucy Powell, Ed Miliband and others are plotting away, looking for the first sign of blood.
We must all prepare for a post-Starmer world, but don’t think he doesn’t have time for another couple of U-turns or scandals before he goes.
