Anas Sarwar calls on Sir Keir Starmer to quit as pressure on PM intensifies

Sir Keir Starmer should quit, the leader of Scottish Labour has said in a blow to the Prime Minister’s fragile authority.

Anas Sarwar used a press conference to call for Sir Keir to resign as the Prime Minister battles to remain in No 10 following the scandal surrounding Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointed to Washington as British ambassador, despite his links to Jeffrey Epstein being known.

Mr Sarwar said: “The distraction needs to end and the leadership in Downing Street has to change.”

Mr Sarwar is the most senior Labour politician to call for Sir Keir to go, conscious of the task facing Scottish Labour in May’s Holyrood elections where opinion polls indicate his party faces coming third behind the SNP and Reform.

The Prime Minister’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney quit  on Sunday and communications chief Tim Allan left on Monday in the wake of the Lord Mandelson row.

Cabinet ministers publicly backed Sir Keir as Mr Sarwar called for him to go, while Downing Street insisted the Prime Minister would not resign.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “Keir Starmer is one of only four Labour leaders ever to have won a general election.

“He has a clear five-year mandate from the British people to deliver change, and that is what he will do.”

But Mr Sarwar, speaking at a hastily convened press conference in Glasgow, said: “It is so obvious that we desperately need change in Scotland, and in three months time’ the opportunity to get rid of a failing SNP government is one that is too important to be missed.

“We cannot allow the failures at the heart of Downing Street to mean the failures continue here in Scotland, because the election in May is not without consequence for the lives of Scots.”

Before news of Mr Sarwar’s intervention, the Prime Minister was said by No 10 to be “upbeat” and “confident” as he gave an address to No 10 staff amid the fallout over the Mandelson affair.

Sir Keir is due to face Labour MPs later on Monday amid anger over his appointment of Lord Mandelson as ambassador to the US despite knowing that the peer’s links with Jeffrey Epstein continued after the financier’s conviction for child sex offences.

Labour has 37 MPs in Scotland who will now face having to decide whether to back Mr Sarwar or stay loyal to Sir Keir.

The Prime Minister is confident he has the unanimous support of the Cabinet, the spokesman said.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said Sir Keir deserved support from backbenchers before his address to them at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) on Monday evening.

He told the Press Association: “I think he will acknowledge what’s gone wrong.

“He’ll take responsibility for the decision, but he’ll say the Government still has a lot of important work to do, and he wants to lead that work, and I believe he deserves the support of the parliamentary party in doing that.”

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy was the first of the Cabinet to post his support on social media, saying: “Keir Starmer won a massive mandate 18 months ago, for five years to deliver on Labour’s manifesto that we all stood on.

“We should let nothing distract us from our mission to change Britain and we support the Prime Minister in doing that.”

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “With Keir as our Prime Minister we are turning the country around.”

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “At this crucial time for the world, we need his leadership not just at home but on the global stage.”

Sir Keir told staff at Downing Street on Monday morning that they must “go forward from here” and prove that politics can be a “force for good”.

Speaking to his team about Lord Mandelson, Sir Keir said: “The thing that makes me most angry is the undermining of the belief that politics can be a force for good and can change lives.”

Downing Street communications chief Mr Allan said he was standing down to allow “a new No 10 team to be built”.

Mr Allan, who like Lord Mandelson is a “New Labour” veteran, only joined the media operation in September.

Before Mr Sarwar’s intervention, calls for Sir Keir to go had come from MPs on the left of the party.

The pressure on his premiership looks unlikely to ease as the Government prepares for the lengthy process of releasing tens of thousands of emails, messages and documents relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment.

Sir Keir believes the files will prove the former Labour grandee lied about the extent of his ties to the notorious paedophile during his vetting.

He and Mr McSweeney have pinned blame on vetting by the security services for failing to disprove Lord Mandelson’s claims that he barely knew the late financier, which were later dramatically debunked by disclosures in the so-called Epstein files.

Officials have been tasked with examining that process as a priority.