‘What is he hiding?’ Starmer dodges Mandelson-Epstein questions | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of hiding the reality after refusing to reply questions on appointing a good friend of Jeffrey Epstein as his US Ambassador. Tory MP Andrew Snowden mentioned the Prime Minister delivered “pre-scripted nonsense that bares no resemblance to the question actually asked” and fumed “what is he scared of, what is he hiding?”

During a showdown with MPs as we speak, Sir Keir refused to reply questions on the appointment of Lord Peter Mandelson on greater than 4 events, sparking fury from parliamentarians.

Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Alex Burghart mentioned the Prime Minister’s silence “speaks volumes” and accused him of both failing to ask primary questions on Mandelson’s relationship with the convicted paedophile – or asking and ignoring the solutions.

Mr Snowden challenged Sir Keir within the House of Commons saying the Prime Minister “had a blindspot to the details to this convicted paedophile with a friend in high Labour places”.

Speaking to the Daily Express Mr Burghart took intention on the Prime Minister’s “refusal to answer simple, direct questions” saying that it “speaks volumes”. He added: “At a moment when the public expects transparency, Starmer will not even confirm whether he personally asked Peter Mandelson about his inappropriate and ongoing relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.”

He added: “That leaves two possibilities – either the Prime Minister failed to ask the most basic questions of someone he appointed to high office, or he did ask – and chose to ignore the answers.”

Last week Sir Keir was accused of a canopy up after essential sections of Government recordsdata on the disgraced peer’s appointment have been left clean, with critics claiming the Prime Minister’s notes had been “removed”.

A file launched final week confirmed that his part of a “box note”, the quilt web page for a ministerial briefing file, had been left empty. Yet the field reserved for Sir Keir’s response within the due diligence report on Mandelson’s hyperlinks to Epstein was clean, sparking fury from Tory chief Kemi Badenoch, who accused the Prime Minister of “lie after lie”.

Critics accused the Prime Minister of a canopy up and objected to the truth that his route on the appointment gave the impression to be lacking from the launched recordsdata. Initially No 10 had refused handy the paperwork over, and needed to be pressured into doing so by a vote in Parliament which noticed Sir Keir’s former deputy, Angela Rayner, again requires elevated transparency.

The paperwork revealed Sir Keir was warned of a “general reputational risk” over Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein earlier than giving him the celebrated Washington posting.

The due diligence report despatched to Sir Keir in December 2024 famous that after Epstein was first convicted of procuring an underage woman in 2008, “their relationship continued across 2009-2011, beginning when Lord Mandelson was business minister and continuing after the end of the Labour government”.

The doc acknowledged: “Mandelson reportedly stayed in Epstein’s house while he was in jail in June 2009.” Despite the warnings, Sir Keir appointed Mandelson as ambassador to Washington in December 2024.

Ms Badenoch blasted the Prime Minister at PMQs for the timing of the discharge after they have been solely made public after the final spherical of PMQs. It meant that Sir Keir couldn’t be requested about their contents till every week had handed.

Sir Keir went on to repeatedly refuse to reply questions, as a substitute participating in a scattergun collection of replies starting from Iran and Donald Trump to criticism of the shadow justice secretary.

The Prime Minister sacked Mandelson in September 2025 after additional disclosures concerning the relationship with Epstein emerged.

Lord Mandelson denies wrongdoing.