Starmer meltdown! Another disastrous day as key aide quits

Downing Street was in meltdown on Monday as Keir Starmer lurched into a fresh crisis.

On another disastrous day for Labour, he struggled to explain why he kept backing Peter Mandelson, even while officials were urgently investigating new information about the US ambassador's links to paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

In a further body blow – as exclusively revealed by Daily Mail columnist Dan Hodges – the Prime Minister's director of strategy was forced to quit over crude messages about Labour veteran Diane Abbott.

The latest departure of another key ally came just two weeks after Sir Keir launched 'Phase Two' of his government in a bid to put his dismal first year in office behind him.

Paul Ovenden's resignation – after the departures of Lord Mandelson and Angela Rayner – means that the PM has now lost three senior figures in controversial circumstances since the relaunch this month.

Last night, some Labour MPs were publicly warning that Sir Keir has just months to save his job. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch had accused Sir Keir of going 'into hiding' since sacking Lord Mandelson as US ambassador on Thursday – less than 24 hours after backing him to the hilt.

When he finally broke cover on Monday, the PM struggled to explain why he had continued to stand by the disgraced peer even after the Government was told that he had urged Epstein to seek early release from jail.

The PM said he was 'angry' about an alleged lack of candour from Lord Mandelson, who had been forced to resign from two previous Cabinet roles in the 1990s during a long and chequered political career. 

He said he now wished he had never appointed Lord Mandelson, who was championed by the PM's chief of staff Morgan McSweeney.

'I am angry,' he told Channel 4 News. 'I don't particularly think anger helps, but I feel let down. I feel that the process was gone through and now information has come to light which, had I known it at the time, I wouldn't have appointed him.'

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Starmer was told of Mandelson investigation before backing him at PMQs

But the PM admitted that he had known about Lord Mandelson's friendship with Epstein when he handed him the top diplomatic role in December last year.

No 10 confirmed this included knowing that he stayed at Epstein's house while he was in prison for child sex offences.

And Sir Keir said he had known the Foreign Office was investigating further emails between the pair when he defended him in the Commons last week. He claimed he had not known the content of the emails but decided to defend him anyway.

Mrs Badenoch last night urged the PM to 'come clean' about exactly what he knew and when. The Tory leader added: 'In just ten days, Starmer has lost a housing secretary for dodging tax on her house, a US ambassador over his links to a vile paedophile, and now his 'strategy chief' has resigned in disgrace.

'The Government is a disaster, distracted from the serious issues our country is facing.' The Conservatives have also lodged a formal request for the release of the 'Mandelson files' covering exactly what the Government knew about the disgraced peer at the time he was appointed. 

The row came as:

• Sir Keir said he would not resign, despite Labour warning his faltering leadership risks handing the next election to Nigel Farage;
• The Conservatives twisted the knife by securing a three-hour emergency debate on the growing Mandelson scandal in the Commons today;
• Senior Labour backbencher Helen Hayes suggested the Prime Minister could be forced out if next May's local election result in another wipeout for the party;
• Ministers scrambled to salvage plans for Donald Trump's state visit, which is due to get underway tonight;
• Reform UK claimed another scalp with the defection of senior Tory MP Danny Kruger.

Labour morale took a further blow on Monday with the dramatic resignation of the PM's director of strategy, who was one of his most senior aides and a close ally of Mr McSweeney.

Mr Ovenden, who wrote speeches for Sir Keir and led Labour's 'attack unit' that helped bring down Boris Johnson, was forced to go after Daily Mail columnist Dan Hodges revealed messages containing crude sexual remarks about Ms Abbott, Labour's first black female MP.

Downing Street said the messages, written in 2017, were 'appalling and unacceptable'. But allies of Mr Ovenden, who was a popular figure in No 10, criticised the PM for failing to stand by him.

His departure fuels a growing sense of crisis engulfing the Government.

Sir Keir tried to revive Labour's flagging fortunes after the summer break by announcing a 'reset' designed to focus the government on 'delivery, delivery, delivery'.

But instead he has lost three senior figures, raised questions about his own judgment and triggered fresh infighting within the Labour Party. Former Labour frontbencher Andy McDonald said 'morale is very low' and called for an urgent change of course from the leadership, adding: 'The Prime Minister's future is in his own hands.'

Fellow Left-winger Richard Burgon predicted the PM would be 'gone by next May' unless he shifts to the Left immediately.

Ms Hayes, Labour chairman of the Commons education committee, told the BBC that there would be 'questions about the nature of the leadership' unless Labour's fortunes improve before next May's elections in England, Scotland and Wales.

Education minister Jacqui Smith urged Labour MPs to halt the infighting, saying they should focus on 'building back people's confidence that government can make a difference for them.'