Allies of Angela Rayner have warned that Keir Starmer ‘has got to go’ over the Peter Mandelson vetting scandal.
In a move that casts doubt on reports of an imminent Cabinet return for the former deputy PM, friends have briefed Labour MPs they expect the Prime Minister to be ousted soon after next week’s local elections.
One of Ms Rayner’s supporters warned that Labour was becoming known as the ‘paedo protectors’ party’ under Sir Keir’s leadership, referencing Mandelson’s friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The long-standing ally said the scandal was causing lasting damage among Labour’s traditional working-class supporters after it was revealed that Sir Keir turned a blind eye to the disgraced peer’s friendship with Epstein when appointing him as US ambassador.
The source said the situation has been compounded by the PM’s decision to hand a peerage to his former communications chief, Matthew Doyle. He had the Labour whip suspended for campaigning for a councillor who had been charged with child sex offences.
‘Keir Starmer is now the leader of the paedo protectors’ party, and he has to go,’ the source said.
‘The friendship between Matthew Doyle and Mandelson is a major problem. There are further revelations to come there.’
It has emerged that Sir Keir floated the idea of a Cabinet return for Ms Rayner in a bid to shore up his faltering leadership. Labour sources confirmed the pair held private talks earlier this month but insisted that no formal job offer had been made or accepted.
Will she, won’t she? Angela Rayner is keeping the PM guessing over whether she would accept a return to the Cabinet
Allies of Ms Rayner claim Keir Starmer’s handling of the Mandelson scandal has seen Labour branded the ‘paedo protectors party’
Mandelson and Epstein seen together in one of the snaps recently released
A spokesman for Ms Rayner distanced her from the friend’s remarks about the PM’s future, saying: ‘This doesn’t represent Angela’s views.’
Ms Rayner backed the release of the Mandelson files, but fell into line this week by helping vote down a Commons inquiry into whether the PM lied about the disastrous appointment.
The Mail on Sunday revealed at the weekend that Ms Rayner has been phoning senior members of the parliamentary Labour party to urge them ‘it’s now or never’ if they wish to remove the PM.
Sir Keir is weighing up the idea of a snap reshuffle in the immediate aftermath of the May 7 elections to try to stamp his authority on the party.
Aides have discussed the plan as an opportunity to shift the Government to the Left in response to elections which are expected to see Labour lose votes to the Greens, particularly in London and the inner cities.
Blairite Business Secretary Peter Kyle and Technology Secretary Liz Kendall are both being lined up for the chop, clearing space for more Left-wing figures such as Ms Rayner and the party’s deputy leader Lucy Powell.
Sir Keir yesterday fuelled speculation that Rachel Reeves could also be sacked.
During questions in the Commons, he refused to guarantee that the Chancellor would keep her job. The PM defended her record but ducked direct questions about whether she would stay on.
Downing Street later insisted that Ms Reeves had his full confidence. A No10 spokesman said Sir Keir’s position was ‘unchanged’ from January last year when he said she would remain Chancellor ‘into the next election and beyond’. Some of Ms Rayner’s friends have urged her to resist any attempt to bind her into the Government.
Ms Rayner was forced to resign from the Cabinet last September after it emerged she had failed to pay £40,000 in stamp duty on a luxury apartment in Hove, 260 miles from her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency.
An HMRC investigation into her tax affairs is continuing.
Sir Keir has previously suggested she could not return to Cabinet until her tax affairs were cleared up.
But No10 yesterday declined to say whether this restriction still stands. The intervention from Ms Rayner’s allies underlines the continuing threat posed to the PM’s position by the fallout from the Mandelson scandal.
The phrase ‘paedo protectors’ party’ was first used by Labour MP Emma Lewell, who warned Sir Keir that the insult was being hurled at her members of staff in the street.
Ms Lewell, MP for South Shields, was one of 14 Labour MPs to defy a three-line whip on Tuesday to vote for a sleaze investigation into whether the PM has lied to the Commons about the Mandelson affair.
She told MPs: ‘I could not even begin to express how much it hurts me when people are screaming at me in the street that I am a member of the ‘paedo protectors’ party’.
‘Prior to this scandal, people criticised the Government’s policies and, at times, lack of political narrative, but they are now questioning the Government’s moral compass.’ She said that ‘recent weeks have seen such abuse intensify and threats to me and my staff’s safety continue’.
Parliament’s intelligence and security committee said on Tuesday that it has finished going through the rest of the Mandelson files, clearing the way for thousands of documents to be published in the days following the return of Parliament on May 13.
The release threatens to derail attempts by Sir Keir to reset his premiership by dragging him back into the Mandelson scandal.
