UK leader Starmer averts a leadership challenge for now but remains
damaged by Epstein fallout
[February 11, 2026]
By JILL LAWLESS
LONDON (AP) — Keir Starmer fights another day.
After indirect fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein files sparked a dramatic
day of crisis that threatened to topple him, the U.K. prime minister was
saved by a pugnacious fightback and hesitation among his rivals inside
the governing Labour Party about the consequences of a leadership coup.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said Tuesday that Labour lawmakers had
“looked over the precipice … and they didn’t like what they saw.”
“And they thought the right thing was to unite behind Keir,” Miliband
told the BBC.
He might have added: For now.
Mandelson blowback
Starmer’s authority over his center-left party has been battered by
aftershocks from the publication of files related to Epstein — a man he
never met and whose sexual misconduct hasn't implicated him.
But it was Starmer's decision to appoint veteran Labour politician Peter
Mandelson, a friend of Epstein, as U.K. ambassador to Washington in 2024
that has led many to question the leader's judgment and call for his
resignation.
Starmer has apologized, saying Mandelson had lied about the extent of
his ties to the convicted sex offender. And he vowed to fight for his
job.
“I will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this
country,” Starmer said Tuesday as he visited a community center in
southern England. “I will never walk away from the people that I’m
charged with fighting for and I will never walk away from the country
that I love.”
Starmer’s risky decision to appoint Mandelson — who brought extensive
contacts and trade expertise but a history of questionable ethical
judgment — backfired when emails were published in September showing
that Mandelson had maintained a friendship with Epstein after the
financier’s 2008 conviction for sex offenses involving a minor.
Starmer fired Mandelson, but a new trove of Epstein files released last
month by the U.S. government contained more revelations. Mandelson is
now facing a police investigation for potential misconduct in public
office over documents suggesting that he passed sensitive government
information to Epstein. He's not accused of any sexual offenses.
Simmering discontent
The Mandelson scandal may be the final straw that finishes Starmer’s
premiership. But it follows discontent that has built since he led
Labour to a landslide election victory 19 months ago.
Some of Starmer’s problems stem from a turbulent world and a gloomy
economic backdrop. He has won praise for rallying international support
for Ukraine and persuading U.S. President Donald Trump to sign a trade
deal easing tariffs on U.K. goods. But at home, he has struggled to
bring down inflation, boost economic growth and ease the cost of living.
Despite a huge parliamentary majority that should allow the government
to implement its plans with ease, Starmer has been forced to make
multiple U-turns on contentious policies including welfare cuts and
mandatory digital ID cards.
Starmer has been through two chiefs of staff, four directors of
communications and multiple lower-level staff changes in Downing Street.
The prime minister’s powerful chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigned
Sunday over the decision to appoint Mandelson. Communications director
Tim Allan left the next day.
Allan's predecessor, Matthew Doyle, has since been appointed by Starmer
to the House of Lords, but said Tuesday he would not be sitting as a
Labour member over his association with Sean Morton, a former Labour
councilor who was convicted in 2017 of possessing indecent images of
children. Doyle condemned Morton's crimes and apologized for campaigning
for him in an election before his conviction, saying that was “a clear
error of judgment for which I apologize unreservedly.” He said he had
believed Morton's claim of innocence at the time.
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Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer visits a community centre in
Welwyn Garden City, England, Tuesday Feb. 10, 2026. (Suzanne
Plunkett/Pool Photo via AP)
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar held a news conference on Monday
and called for Starmer to resign. If other senior party figures had
followed, the pressure would have been impossible for Starmer to
resist.
But none did. Instead, Starmer’s Cabinet and parliamentary
colleagues posted apparently choreographed messages of support. They
included former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner and Health
Secretary Wes Streeting, considered the two most likely challengers
for the top job.
Then, came a highly charged meeting with Labour members of
Parliament, where Starmer impressed many with his sense of resolve.
Lawmakers in the room said that the mood, initially skeptical,
became supportive.
“It was clear he was up for the fight,” said Chris Curtis, one of
more than 200 Labour lawmakers elected in the 2024 Starmer
landslide.
Temporary reprieve
Starmer appears to have more political lives than Larry the cat, who
has outlasted five prime ministers during 15 years as “chief mouser”
in Downing Street.
But his respite is likely to be temporary. Many Labour lawmakers
remain worried about their reelection chances if the party’s dire
opinion poll ratings don’t improve.
Some female party members feel particularly disappointed by
Mandelson’s appointment. The Labour leader of Wales, First Minister
Eluned Morgan, called revelations about Mandelson “deeply troubling,
not least because, once again, the voices of women and girls were
ignored.
“That failure must be acknowledged and confronted honestly,” she
said, while offering support for Starmer.
Labour faces potential electoral setbacks at a Feb. 26 special
election in what was once a party stronghold in northwest England,
and in May’s elections for legislatures in Scotland and Wales and
local councils in England.
And rivals are still plotting. The Guardian reported that an “Angela
for leader” website backing Rayner briefly went live last month by
accident. Streeting, whose genial relationship with Mandelson is now
a weakness, released messages he’d exchanged with Mandelson before
and after the ambassadorial appointment, seemingly in an attempt to
show the men weren't close friends.
The exchanges include implicit criticism of Starmer, with Streeting
writing that the government had “No growth strategy at all.”
Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London,
said that Starmer had “bought himself some time” and challengers
were “keeping their powder dry” for the moment.
“It’s very difficult to imagine after the shellacking that the party
will presumably face in May, him continuing to lead the party much
beyond this summer,” Bale said.
Though in British politics, nothing is impossible.
“There are problems with the other candidates," Bale said. “It’s
never an ideal situation for any party to be choosing a prime
minister in midterm, and it may be that the Labour Party decides,
better the devil you know. I suspect that Keir Starmer will go, but
who knows?”
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