Tories 'considering options' for removing Keir Starmer as Prime Minister

The Conservative leader urged Labour MPs to “do the right thing” and oust the PM over revelations that Peter Mandelson failed security vetting.

But Scottish Labour MPs predicted that Sir Keir would “stumble on” and suggested he could even continue after next month’s Scottish election.

Downing Street has blamed Foreign Office officials for clearing Lord Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to Washington after specialists from UK Security Vetting had recommended against giving the peer the necessary security clearance.

The Prime Minister has said he was “absolutely furious” and described the failure to inform him that the Foreign Office had overruled the vetting team was “staggering”.

The Foreign Office’s top civil servant, Sir Olly Robbins, has already been sacked over the scandal.

Asked whether she would call a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister, Tory leader Ms Badenoch told a press conference in Westminster: “I am now considering every parliamentary option parliamentary option.

“But the fact is, the country gave Labour a landslide two years ago. I do not have enough Conservatives MPs to win a vote of no confidence.

“The people who can do that, who can make this happen, are Labour MPs.

“Labour MPs now need to decide whether they’re going to be complicit in this cover-up and keep this man there to save their jobs, or whether they are going to do the right thing.”

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Sir Keir will face MPs on Monday, and he has pledged to set out “all of the relevant facts” and offer “full transparency and full accountability”.

He has denied knowing Lord Mandelson failed security vetting, saying no ministers were told and launching an investigation into the matter.

But opposition politicians have called for his resignation, accusing Sir Keir of lying to the Commons when he told MPs that “full due process” was followed in Lord Mandelson’s appointment.

Scottish Labour MPs said there was “no way” the PM would face a vote of no confidence.

One MP said: “He doesn’t strike me as someone who would lie at the despatch box. He’s not a dishonest person. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt.

“I think he will stay in office until after the local elections. There’s no way there will be a vote of no confidence.

“If we do slightly better than expected in May, then he will stumble on.”

A second said: “It doesn’t move the dial because the scandal was already big.

“It only reinforces people who were already annoyed. It makes Anas Sarwar look like he was right to call for him to go. It makes him look astute.

“No one will be moving to get rid of the PM before the elections.”

A third MP said: “It hasn’t changed anything.”

They added: “He deserves to stay in place if no one is willing to challenge him.”

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SNP Westminster Leader Stephen Flynn said the PM should resign: "The resignation of Olly Robbins does not get the Prime Minister off the hook - it only raises more questions.

"Keir Starmer has run out of excuses, and fall guys, to blame for his own bad judgement and incompetence. He should do the decent thing and resign - before he is forced out.

"Starmer should have gone weeks ago - he was the one who insisted on Mandelson's appointment and his judgement and credibility are fatally damaged.”

Lord Mandelson, a political appointment rather than a career diplomat, was sacked from his Washington role last September when more details emerged about his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019.

Sir Keir was already under fire over the decision to give Lord Mandelson the job, despite it being known that his dealings with Epstein continued after the financier’s conviction for child sex offences.

Pollsters suggested the newest revelations would make little difference to Scottish Labour’s chances as the party is “at the floor” when it comes to opinion polling.

Strathclyde University polling guru John Curtice said: “I’m not sure it's going to tell anybody anything that they don't know. If you think the decision to appoint Mandelson was somewhat unacceptable, I don't think this is going to change your view.

“My memory is that the revelations about Mandelson didn't have any particular impact on the British polls at the time.

“The reason for that of course is that the Labour Party was already in so much trouble. They are really now down at the floor. So it really will take something to make things actually worse for them.

“The question that most people will ask is: ‘Why was Mandelson appointed?’ And that is not a new question.”

Pollster Mark Diffley said: “I don’t think it will [affect Scottish Labour’s polling].

“It’s built in now. There’s not a huge amount more support they can lose.

“I think what’s left is the core ‘Labour at all costs’ kind of support.”

Mr Sarwar said the PM should answer questions in parliament about Lord Mandelson.

Mr Sarwar had said the scandal around the peer was the “tipping point” which led to his earlier call for Sir Keir to quit.

When asked if Mr Sarwar calling for the PM to go earlier this year had made a difference, Mr Diffley said: “It hasn’t. It was a bit of a long shot to begin with.

“One reason is that it’s sort of built in by that point. Another is that he did it a couple of months ago, quite late on.

“The evidence that Starmer was a drag on support for Labour in Scotland had been evident for quite a while.

“It was a bit late in the day. It takes a while for people to pick up on it and what it means. And then he hasn’t really followed through particularly.”

Asked if he thought the Prime Minister had misled Parliament, Mr Sarwar said on Friday: “These are questions that of course have to be answered by Downing Street – in the Parliament and also in any appropriate parliamentary committees.

“I stated my position back in February, I stand by my position – I don’t recoil from it.

“Many people will know that the Mandelson scandal was the tipping point for me.”

Speaking about the upcoming election, he said: “Keir Starmer is not standing to be first minister.

“It’s not about a judgment on two years of a Labour Government.

“It’s about what happens here in Scotland after 20 years of an SNP Government that have lost their way.”