Starmer insists he DIDN'T KNOW about Mandelson's emails before PMQs

Keir Starmer today insisted he did not know about Lord Mandelson's emails to Jeffrey Epstein before defending him at PMQs.

Finally breaking his silence since sacking the US ambassador last week, the premier struggled to address questions about what he knew and when.

He admitted he would never have appointed Lord Mandelson had he been aware of his messages to the notorious paedophile. 

But critics have been claiming there are gaps in the government's account - and Sir Keir was sideswiped with another scandal this afternoon as one of his most senior aides quit over historical leaked lewd WhatsApps about Diane Abbott.

MPs will be given the opportunity to debate the appointment of Lord Mandelson, and the circumstances leading to his dismissal as the ambassador to the US, on Tuesday.

Conservative former minister Sir David Davis was granted an emergency debate on the matter after telling MPs: 'We need to know who knew what and when.'

Meanwhile, the influential Foreign Affairs Committee has demanded an opportunity to grill the department's top mandarin and the Cabinet Office's head of propriety and ethics tomorrow - although the request has been rejected. 

Asked whether he had been briefed before his weekly showdown with Kemi Badenoch, Sir Keir told broadcasters: 'It was only on Wednesday, early evening, that I knew the contents of the Bloomberg emails.

'It was only very late on Wednesday when Peter Mandelson replied to the questions that have been put to him by Government officials.

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'And it was on that, basically, I took my decision that he should be removed.

'What I knew before PMQs was that there had been media enquiries. I didn't know the content of the Bloomberg emails, and I knew that questions had been put to Peter that he had not yet answered, and he hadn't answered them by the time I got to PMQs, there is, of course, a time lag in America, but I knew that there were questions that have been put to him, but I didn't know what answers he was going to give to those questions.

'That came later on Wednesday, and that's why, at that point, I gave the answer I did at PMQs. And that's the extent of what I knew at the time.'

Sir Keir gave public backing to Lord Mandelson at PMQs on Wednesday only to sack him the following day after the publication of email exchanges with Epstein.

The peer has voiced regret about continuing his friendship with Epstein with the US financier after he was convicted, saying he wished he had never met him. 

The premier told broadcasters Lord Mandelson went through a proper due diligence process before his appointment.

But he added: 'Had I known then what I know now, I'd have never appointed him.'

Sir Keir said: 'What emerged last week were emails... which showed that the nature and extent of the relationship that Peter Mandelson had with Epstein was far different to what I had understood to be the position when I appointed him.

'On top of that, what the email showed was he was not only questioning but wanting to challenge the conviction of Epstein at the time that for me, went and cut across the whole approach that I've taken on violence against women and girls for many years, and this Government's approach.

'On top of that, what emerged last week, on Wednesday evening late, were Peter Mandelson's responses to questions that have been put to him by Government officials. I looked at those responses, and I did not find them at all satisfying.

'And therefore, on the basis of those three things – the nature and extent of the relationship being far different to what I'd understood to be the position at the point of appointment, the questioning and challenging of the conviction, which, as I say, goes to the heart and cuts across what this Government is doing on violence against women and girls and the unsatisfactory nature of responses from Peter Mandelson last week to the inquires made of him by Government officials – I took the decision to remove him.'

On the eve of Donald Trump's state visit, the government benches are seething with fury over the latest example of the premier's dire judgment. 

MPs are openly warning that Sir Keir - who entered No10 with a massive majority just last year - only has months to turn things around. 

The May elections have been identified as a make-or-break moment, with fears Nigel Farage could see another huge surge.

However, Sir Keir is facing even more immediate challenges over what was known when about Lord Mandelson's relationship with Epstein. The PM will be out and about unveiling details of a new nuclear power deal with America later. 

It has emerged that Downing Street became aware of the damning correspondence on Tuesday – two days before he was sacked. 

The Daily Mail has revealed No 10 was told then that the emails contained suggestions by Lord Mandelson that Epstein's first conviction was wrongful and should be challenged.

But sources insisted that the information, which came in a 2,000-word memo from Bloomberg News which was seeking comment from Lord Mandelson, was not shared with Sir Keir, who told MPs during Wednesday's Prime Minister's Questions that he had 'confidence' in his man in Washington.

Meanwhile, Foreign Office permanent secretary Sir Oliver Robbins, formerly Theresa May's bungling Brexit chief, was seeking a response from Lord Mandelson about the emails, which only came later – on Wednesday afternoon.

On Thursday morning, the Foreign Office said that the 'suggestion that Jeffrey Epstein's first conviction was wrongful and should be challenged is new information' and that 'in light of that... he has been withdrawn as ambassador with immediate effect'. 

The revelation adds to pressure on the PM's all-powerful chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, with several MPs calling for him to be sacked.

How Keir's 'Phase Two' reset descended into a fortnight chaos

1 September - Sir Keir Starmer attempts to get on the front foot as MPs return from their summer break. The PM carries out a shake-up of his No10 team and drafts in Darren Jones as his chief fixer in the newly-created role of Chief Secretary to the PM. No10 says Sir Keir is moving to 'Phase Two' of his Labour Government.

3 September - The PM's 'reset' is almost immediately derailed by Angela Rayner's tearful admission she didn't pay enough tax when buying her new £800,000 flat in Hove, East Sussex.

5 September - Ms Rayner resigns as Depyty PM, Housing Secretary and deputy Labour leader after a probe found she had breached the ministerial code. Sir Keir is forced into a widespread reshuffle of his ministerial ranks.

9 September - Democratic politicians in the US release a 238-page scrapbook given to Jeffrey Epstein as 50th birthday present. It reveals how Lord Mandelson, the UK ambassador to the US, described the notorious paedophile as 'my best pal' in a handwritten note.

10 September - Lord Mandelson uses a newspaper interview to admit more 'embarrassing' revelations about his relationship with Epstein are likely to come. But Sir Keir expresses his 'confidence' in Lord Mandelson at PMQs later in the day.

11 September - Lord Mandelson is sacked by Sir Keir. No10 says the publication of fresh emails from Lord Mandelson to Epstein showed their relationship was 'materially different' from that known at the time of his appointment.

15 September - Paul Ovenden resigns as Sir Keir's director of strategy after sexually explicit messages about senior MP Diane Abbott emerged.