Leader of Scotland’s Labour Party calls on Starmer to resign over Epstein revelations

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer talks with members of the audience after delivering a speech at Horntye Park Sports Complex in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, England, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (Peter Nicholls/Pool Photo via AP)

LONDON — The leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to resign Monday after revelations about the relationship between former British ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

With Starmer’s position hanging by a thread after just 19 months in office, Sarwar said that “the distraction needs to end and the leadership in Downing Street has to change.”

Sarwar is the most senior Labour figure to call for Starmer to quit, piling more pressure on the prime minister over his decision to appoint Mandelson to the high-profile diplomatic post.

“There have been too many mistakes,” said Sarwar, who acknowledged that he was making the call in an attempt to save Labour’s chances in elections for Scotland’s semi-autonomous Parliament in May.

Starmer’s chief of staff and his communications director have also quit in the last 24 hours, leaving the prime minister battling to shore up his crumbling authority.

Starmer’s office said Monday that he is not planning to step down.

“He has a clear five-year mandate from the British people to deliver change, and that is what he will do,” Downing Street said in a statement.

A string of senior Cabinet colleagues spoke up to defend Starmer. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy wrote on X: “We should let nothing distract us from our mission to change Britain and we support the Prime Minister in doing that.” Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper posted: “At this crucial time for the world, we need his leadership not just at home but on the global stage.” Treasury chief Rachel Reeves wrote: “With Keir as our Prime Minister we are turning the country around.”

Starmer was due to address Labour lawmakers behind closed doors Monday evening in an attempt to rebuild some of his badly weakened authority.

Starmer has apologized

The political storm stems from Starmer’s decision in 2024 to appoint Mandelson to Britain’s most important diplomatic post, despite knowing he had ties to Epstein.

Starmer fired Mandelson last September after emails were published showing that he maintained a friendship with Epstein after the financier’s 2008 conviction for sex offenses involving a minor. Critics say Starmer should have known better than to appoint Mandelson, 72, a contentious figure whose career has been studded with scandals over money or ethics.

A new trove of Epstein files released in the United States has brought more details about the relationship, and new pressure on Starmer.

Starmer apologized last week for “having believed Mandelson’s lies.”

He promised to release documentation related to Mandelson’s appointment, which the government says will show that Mandelson misled officials about his ties to Epstein. But publication of the documents could be weeks away. They must be vetted on national security grounds and for potential conflicts with a police investigation.

Police are investigating Mandelson for potential misconduct in public office over documents suggesting he passed sensitive government information to Epstein a decade and a half ago. The offense carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Mandelson has not been arrested or charged, and does not face any allegations of sexual misconduct.

‘He needs to step up’

Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, took the fall for the decision by quitting on Sunday, saying: “I advised the prime minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice.”

McSweeney has been Starmer’s most important aide since he became Labour leader in 2020, and is considered a key architect of Labour’s landslide July 2024 election victory. But some in the party blame him for a series of missteps since then.

Some Labour officials hope that his departure will buy the prime minister time to rebuild trust with the party and the country.

Senior lawmaker Emily Thornberry said McSweeney had become a “divisive figure” and his departure brought the opportunity for a reset.

She said Starmer is “a good leader in that he is strong and clear. I think that he needs to step up a bit more than he has.”

Others say McSweeney’s departure leaves Starmer weak and isolated.

Opposition calls to resign

Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said Starmer “has made bad decision after bad decision” and “his position now is untenable.”

Since winning office, Starmer has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living. He pledged a return to honest government after 14 years of scandal-tarred Conservative rule, but has been beset by missteps and U-turns over welfare cuts and other unpopular policies.

Labour consistently lags behind the hard-right Reform UK party in opinion polls, and its failure to improve had sparked talk of a leadership challenge, even before the Mandelson revelations.

Under Britain’s parliamentary system, prime ministers can change without the need for a national election. If Starmer is challenged or resigns, it will trigger an election for the Labour leadership. The winner would become prime minister.

The Conservatives went through three prime ministers between national elections in 2019 and 2024, including Liz Truss, who lasted just 49 days in office.

Starmer was elected on a promise to end the political chaos that roiled the Conservatives’ final years in power. That proved easier said than done.

Labour lawmaker Clive Efford said Starmer’s critics should “be careful what you wish for.”

“I don’t think people took to the changes in prime minister when the Tories were in power,” he told the BBC. “It didn’t do them any good.”

Jill Lawless, The Associated Press