For Keir Starmer’s Labour, Epstein Files force a reckoning

A song from the Labour Party’s 1997 general election campaign in the UK, which would see Tony Blair storm to power with 418 seats out of 659, is still widely remembered: “Things can only get better”. It captured a mood of optimism, a decisive departure from a scandal-ridden, 18-year-old Conservative government. One of the architects of the New Labour project was Peter Mandelson, who came with his own scandals that would force him to resign from the cabinet twice in the next four years. Fourteen years after New Labour’s fall — after Brexit, a series of prime ministers fell like dominoes, there was economic stagnation, public services in crisis, and the return of “Tory sleaze” — Keir Starmer led Labour back to power on a promise of national renewal. In February 2025, Starmer appointed Mandelson ambassador to the US, even though it was known that he was close to the late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. As a fuller picture of Mandelson’s association with Epstein began to emerge, he was dismissed in September 2025. And now, further revelations — including that Mandelson shared sensitive government information with Epstein — have shaken Starmer’s government to its core and led to calls for his resignation.

The crisis comes amid global turmoil and possibly the biggest realignment in British politics since Labour rose to topple the Liberals 100 years ago. Now, the system’s other pole, the Conservatives, face the prospect of being eclipsed by Reform UK. Starmer’s own efforts to appease the right on issues like immigration have only succeeded in alienating the left, already marginalised by factional warfare within Labour. While Starmer insists he will lead the party into the next election, the latest YouGov data shows Labour polling at just 18 per cent, compared to Reform’s 27 per cent; 48 per cent of British adults want the PM to stand down — less than two years after he won 400-plus seats.

The silver lining is that it shows a country where accountability still appears to exist, where powerful men — from Mandelson to the former prince, Andrew — face consequences for one of the world’s most shocking scandals. There is no sign of a similar reckoning in the US, for instance. While the promised renewal seems a distant prospect, Labour still has that huge majority and much that might be achieved, if only it can find a better politics.