00:00I regret appointing him. If I knew then what I know now, he would never have been anywhere near
00:06government. Zakir Starmer is fighting for his political life amid mounting fury over his
00:12decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as the UK's ambassador to the United States, despite being
00:18aware of his ties to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Figures from across the political
00:24spectrum, including MPs within his own party, have questioned the Prime Minister's judgment,
00:30with some even declaring that it's over for Starmer. We can't pretend that this is not a crisis
00:37situation, I think it is. Should he step down? I think that he needs to think very hard about what
00:45is in the country's best interest and what is in his party's best interest. It's a veiled yes.
00:51This is the biggest scandal in British politics for over one century. He knew about all of this
00:59continuing relationship with Jeffrey Epstein when he had been speaking as if he didn't know.
01:05There has been catastrophic decision after catastrophic decision. Can the Prime Minister
01:09tell us, given he now admits he knew about Muslims, before he gave such an important job to one of
01:14Epstein's closest friends, did he think at all about Epstein's victims?
01:20Others, however, are standing firmly by the Prime Minister.
01:24I think the questions here today should be about Peter Mandelson's deception, not the Prime Minister's
01:31action, which was decisive. The pressure on Starmer has been building for some time,
01:36with polling ratings having steadily declined throughout his 16 months in power.
01:40The Independent spoke to members of the public about their thoughts on Starmer's handling of
01:45the Mandelson-Epstein scandal and whether it could undermine his leadership.
01:49I think he could have maybe been a little bit more honest with his MPs, especially,
01:54and maybe some of them are feeling a bit betrayed. I mean, for me, it's kind of
02:00got similarities to the Boris Johnson thing with Chris Pyncher.
02:05I don't think here, Starmer can survive. I think something as serious as this, which
02:09is so in the public interest, it's been a scandal, that's a scandal with Andrew as well,
02:13has been such an issue for so many years. And to have it still making headlines because of
02:19Starmer's failures, it feels like the nail in the coffin for him.
02:21It feels like so much information has been withheld and it feels a little bit like, you know, ordinarily,
02:29if you knew someone had a bit of a dodgy past, a relationship with someone who was, you know,
02:40sort of mismanaging their power, you kind of feel like you would avoid that person like the plague.
02:45But, unfortunately, that didn't happen. He puts him in a position of responsibility,
02:53it blew up in his face, and now we're suffering the consequences of that.
02:58At the moment, and I'm a very proud English-British person, I am so embarrassed for this country.
03:07What we look like as well on the world platform.
03:10I think it does undermine Starmer's credibility a bit as well. I mean,
03:15he's had no end of bad luck ever since he was appointed in crisis after crisis.
03:20So I think he's doing a reasonable job as best can be expected in the circumstances. But yes,
03:26it does call into question the sort of authority and reliability of the government.
03:31Names including Angela Rayner, Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting are already being floated as
03:37potential replacements who could unite a deeply divided Labour Party. A single challenger with the
03:43support of 20% of Labour MPs would be enough to trigger a leadership contest, putting the Prime
03:49Minister in serious jeopardy. But it's still unclear what lies ahead for Starmer's leadership.
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