Is the Mandelson-Epstein crisis Sir Keir Starmer’s Profumo scandal?
Both involved sex, call girls, lurid revelations and a police investigation.
The Profumo scandal brought down Tory prime minister Harold Macmillan in the early 1960s.
Secretary of state for war John Profumo had an affair with call girl Christine Keeler, who was also involved with a Soviet naval attache.
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Profumo lied to parliament about his affair, Macmillan’s handling of the crisis was seen as hopeless – and he failed to confront Profumo about the affair.
Months later, Macmillan was gone. Could it happen again?
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Now, after an excruciating Prime Minister’s Questions, followed by a chaotic Commons showdown on Mandelson, senior MPs are predicting the current scandal will bring down Starmer.
“The Profumo affair brought down Harold Macmillan,” SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn told Sky News. “This will bring down Keir Starmer.
“It’s absolutely inevitable. Today he chose to be clear, and revealed to the nation what he knew and when. And in doing so he showed a clear lack of judgement, which has broken trust with the people of these isles.
“That’s unforgivable for a prime minister, and it’s ultimately going to lead to his departure from No 10.”
But Flynn isn’t alone with his astonishing prediction. His ally Liz Saville-Roberts, Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader, told Sky News: “A number of people are comparing this to the Profumo scandal.
“And, of course, these scandals start slowly and then they speed up. We’re seeing it speed up now.”
Read more:
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Mandelson had no alternative but to resign
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That’s the view from the prime minister’s opponents, of course.
And it must be said that the Commons debate on a Tory demand for the release of a Mandelson “paper trail” ended with the government’s last-minute compromise being approved “on the nod”, and MPs of all parties claiming it was a good outcome.
A last-minute government amendment on a scrap of paper gave parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) the power to vet which sensitive documents about Mandelson should be released, and which shouldn’t.
The government’s previous position, that “papers prejudicial to UK national security or international relations” should be kept secret, incensed MPs of all parties, and the PM was heading for a humiliating rebellion and possible defeat.
Ominously for the PM, it was Angela Rayner, his former deputy now banished to the back benches after her stamp duty dodge, that forced him into a U-turn.
There was a sharp intake of breath from MPs as the rose to her feet and made what sounded like a perfectly sensible proposal. The ISC should look at the papers, in “keeping public confidence in the process”, she said.
But MPs are nothing if not conspiracy theorists. Was she signalling she might vote with the Tories? Was she twisting the knife? Or was she being helpful? Probably all three.
By the end of the debate, many gloomy Labour MPs were in despair at Sir Keir’s faltering and unconvincing performance at PMQs, and the shambolic government U-turn on publishing the Mandelson files.
Was the red queen serving notice that she’s ready to seize Starmer’s crown? Certainly, his terrible judgement in appointing Mandelson as US ambassador has left him even more vulnerable than ever to a leadership challenge.
And the Mandelson-Epstein furore is suddenly being compared by MPs to another sex and secrets scandal that brought down a prime minister more than 60 years ago.
