Starmer is in big trouble. If he goes, could gov fall - impact on the messy world we are in now

aidanodr · 17-04-2026 10:35AM #1

Starmer in alot of trouble here:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/16/five-key-questions-decision-peter-mandelson-security-clearance

The Guardian yesterday resurected all this:

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cn53pnd5wr0t

The back story:

Peter Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the US was announced in December 2024, with him taking the role up two months later.

In between, he underwent a high-level vetting process, carried out by a specialist agency within the Cabinet Office, which includes looking at his credit history and criminal record, as well as undertaking an interview.

His appointment has been under intense scrutiny after Mandelson was sacked seven months into the role over his links with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Files into his appointment process have been released by the government for transparency.

On Thursday, the Guardian reported that Mandelson failed his security vetting, but the decision was overruled by the Foreign Office so he could take up the role.

Downing Street later confirmed the story and said that Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not know Mandelson had failed his security vetting until earlier this week.

And now the top Foreign Office civil servant Olly Robbins is being pushed out of his role in the fallout.

Starmer has already faced calls to resign over claims that he misled Parliament in September 2025, when he claimed three times that “full due process” had been followed in the appointment.

The latest revelation has renewed calls for him to step down.

Absolute fuel to likes of Torys / Kemi Badenoch and to Nigel Farage. WE as in rest of Europe need this like a hole in the head, just as Starmer is moving the UK back into the EU. The good way he is handling this war of choice by Trump. Right now we need a strong boring leader that is Starmer at the helm in the UK. Last thing we need now is for Starmer to get moved on, labour to fall and an election resulting in Badenoch + Farage right wing UK gov, unwinding everything again.

L1011 · 17-04-2026 10:38AM

If he goes, they'll just replace him. They still have a ridiculous majority and over 3 years of term.

Most of the obvious replacements are also damaged, Rayner with the tax stuff, Streeting with Mandleson and so on; so it could be a very random new PM. If he goes.

aidanodr · 17-04-2026 10:42AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124401705#Comment_124401705

Thanks @L1011 .. Even if the gov doesnt fall but Starmer goes, as you said the obvious replacements are not great. Starmer is the UK PM for this time, if replaced it could do alot of damage with respect to the current situation the world finds itself in now

ancapailldorcha · 17-04-2026 10:43AM

Starmer isn't going anywhere. This isn't enough to topple him and even if it was, any successors are largely from the same mould.

Boggles · 17-04-2026 02:18PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058437174/starmer-is-in-big-trouble-if-he-goes-could-gov-fall-impact-on-the-messy-world-we-are-in-now

Absolute fuel to likes of Torys / Kemi Badenoch and to Nigel Farage

No it isn't.

The problem with having amoral people such as two in opposition, they can't even pretend to claim the moral high ground.

Podge_irl · 17-04-2026 02:31PM

Technically if Starmer goes the Government has fallen by definition and is replaced by a new one.

If you mean will there be an election, there is 0% chance of that even in the unlikely case that Starmer goes.

TheValeyard · 17-04-2026 04:09PM

Loosing another PM? That be seven or eight in 10 years? -would not be a very good look for them.

L1011 · 17-04-2026 04:13PM

He's overtaken Sunak for service length, but is a good way off Johnson and May (who had almost identical lengths of time in office).

cml387 · 17-04-2026 04:15PM

What is this supernatural hold that Mandelson has over Labour?

Every time he has been appointed to something it's ended in tears and yet…

ancapailldorcha · 17-04-2026 04:28PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124402713#Comment_124402713

Is he? Johnson arrived in 2019 and left after the Pincher scandal in 2022 while May was 2016-2019. Starmer came in just under two years ago.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124402717#Comment_124402717

Excellent question. My best guess based on nothing is that some of them must owe their careers to him and his patronage. There can't be many other possible explanations.

L1011 · 17-04-2026 04:39PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124402753#Comment_124402753

A year and some months off each currently

sbs2010 · 17-04-2026 07:09PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124402753#Comment_124402753

Mandelson was good at the nuts and bolts of the jobs he was given.

Need someone in a particular role? Call Mandy.

It was the extras that were problematic. But overlooked ahead of each rehiring because he could "do a job"

Ardillaun · 18-04-2026 12:20AM

It’s a bit comical to see the PM go after the civil service as vehemently as this and expect to survive. Mandelson’s flawed pedigree wasn’t exactly a secret either. Fair play to The Guardian for pursuing this story.

SpoonyMcSpoon · 18-04-2026 12:30AM

Starmer too much of a friend to Israel to be forced to step down is the unfortunate way of the world. So many of them climb get there and stay at the top because of how useful they make themselves to the world’s overlords.

astrofool · 18-04-2026 03:06PM

The bar here is much lower than it was before, look at what Johnson survived through and Farage has more baggage than Mandelson ever will.

somenergy · 18-04-2026 03:21PM

Starmer allowed mandelson take up the role because he would be more acceptable to trump, he was part of the epstein pedofile group that is the most powerful in america.

But it doesn't make it right and harder to explain

cml387 · 18-04-2026 04:25PM

Sometimes it seems the current British government are acting out the best bits of "The Thick Of It."

You can imagine Peter Capaldi telling Olly Robbins a few months ago to "bin that f******* vetting report if you value your f******** job" and now "I didn't tell you to bin the f******* report!!!"

Tell me how · 19-04-2026 01:18PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058437174/starmer-is-in-big-trouble-if-he-goes-could-gov-fall-impact-on-the-messy-world-we-are-in-now

Starmer looked to be on his last legs in late February/early March and the debate then was whether he would go before the local elections next month.

He was massively helped in his inaction around Trump's war in Iran where initially Starmer tired to postpone being decisive but then was helped by the growing realization that only a handful of people think that that war is justified and worth getting involved in.

And Starmer was further helped by Farage and Badenoch initially supporting that same war in saying the UK should row in behind the US.

Farage has had a bad few months. Reform seem to have reached their ceiling in the polls and mostly what Starmer has been in the news for has been explaining missteps they have taken either as a party or that he as a leader has done. He's also showing a growing brittleness in front of the media which doesn't help the party nationally particularly given the party hasn't many wins in local government to point to over the last couple of years.

This latest revelation is bad news for Starmer, but I don't think right now it will be enough to unseat him before the local elections and given they are 3 weeks away, this story will be largely forgotten about by then and the result of the election could be what unseats him.

If further revelations link Starmer directly with the decision to overrule the vetting assessment then indeed he could go sooner.

Tell me how · 19-04-2026 01:36PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124404990#Comment_124404990

Armando Iannucci said soon after Brexit that he wasn't going to revive The Thick of It because what Real Life was producing was more jaw dropping than what could be on the show.

He said satire should be known to be on the excessive side of what it was mocking and that was no longer the case with UK politics.

The letter F falling off the sign that originally read "Building a country that works for everyone" leaving a functional but confusing sentence, while May was literally speaking trying to portray clarity was more nuanced and effective than the scene of Nicola Murray being captured with a massive sign by her head saying "Bent" which was a storyline in the show.

May dancing on to the stage at the party conference, Johnson being photographed dishevelled at an airport after going to meet a Russian contact at a party in Italy, the Covid parties at Downing Street, the whole Dominic Cummings thing and the Liz Truss Prime Minister period, were all real life events a level of bizarre above what was displayed on the show.

aidanodr · 20-04-2026 02:52PM

So - at 3.30pm today STARMER will be addressing this Mandelson situation.

Will he stay, will he go?

Should he stay, should he go?

Personaly - I think he will be gone. I have no axe to grind with Starmer, think he is the best set of hands at the UK tiller for the times we are now in. Plus the tories, boris did far far worse and did not get turfed, but Badenochs tories salivating to get rid.

Hypocrisy in politics these days is top of the list world wide.

ancapailldorcha · 20-04-2026 02:57PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124409675#Comment_124409675

He isn't going. His own party aren't going to force him out now. They might apply some pressure depending on what happens in the 7th May local elections but that's weeks off.

aidanodr · 20-04-2026 03:06PM

The big issue for Starmer I am hearing on the UK mejia is "Misleading Parliament".

breezy1985 · 20-04-2026 03:31PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124406772#Comment_124406772

Cummings "driving to Barnard Castle to make sure his eyes were not failing due to Covid" is way better than anything satire could have thought up.

aidanodr · 20-04-2026 03:34PM

For those interested - starmer speaking now:

https://www.globalplayer.com/live/lbc/uk/?source_caller=ui&shortlink=LBCWebsite&c=Listen%20Button%20-%20LBC&pid=Brand%20Sites&deep_link_value=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.globalplayer.com%2Flive%2Flbc%2Fuk%2F&af_xp=custom

Sleepy · 20-04-2026 03:40PM

Every bit of reporting on Starmer should be viewed through the lens of "his enemies own the media you're reading".

Mandelson, for all his faults, probably still remains the best candidate for the job of ambassador to the USA. He's part of the same corrupt circles as Trump so, as long as he's actually acting in the interests of the UK (a big IF?), he's likely the best person the UK have to deal with him. To mis-use the phrase somewhat: send a crook to deal with a crook.

The UK press will continue to wail at everything Starmer does as he tries to steady the ship that Brexit and the Conservatives holed below the waterline but he still has enough support within Labour to ride it out imho.

Montage of Feck · 20-04-2026 03:48PM

You would swear Starmer had done something terribly wrong. It's trues a mistake is worse than a crime when it's comes to politics, and the media.

ancapailldorcha · 20-04-2026 03:54PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124409805#Comment_124409805

It's not that. The billionaire-controlled corporate press here cannot stomach anyone to the left of David Cameron governing this country.

aidanodr · 20-04-2026 03:56PM

So has Badenoch done her homework there .. or not?

castletownman · 20-04-2026 04:04PM

Whose the last PM to leave the role amiciably? Provided Starmer goes, it seems to be one **** show after another for ages now.

Makes our government look like the doyens of democracy

aidanodr · 20-04-2026 04:08PM

By the sounds of this - all at the commons other than his own party seem to want starmer GONE.

L1011 · 20-04-2026 05:04PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124409833#Comment_124409833

In most posters lifetimes, nobody. UK really defines the "all political careers end in failure" thing. Going back 50 years:

Thatcher, Blair, Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss all left the role away from the ballot box and with significant problems brewing

Callaghan, Major, Brown and Sunak and all quite badly at the ballot box.

Wilson maybe left on his own terms, just over 50 years ago, but made an almighty mess on the way out the door.

Starmer is in big trouble. If he goes, could gov fall - impact on the messy world we are in now

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