On Monday, February 9th Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted that he would not “walk away” after a prominent ally demanded his resignation for embroiling the government in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
Senior ministers rallied behind Starmer during the most serious crisis of his unsteady 19-month premiership, against the backdrop of populists Reform UK surging ahead in the polls.
Starmer told Labour MPs at a high-stakes meeting:
After having fought so hard for the chance to change our country, I’m not prepared to walk away from my mandate and my responsibility.
Earlier on Monday, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called for Starmer to resign over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as U.S. ambassador, citing Mandelson’s known links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Left-wing figurehead Angela Rayner and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood—both tipped as potential successors to Starmer—proclaimed their “full support” for the embattled Labour leader.
