LABOUR MPs were queuing up to warn that Keir Starmer’s days as Prime Minister are numbered following a disastrous day in Parliament on Wednesday when Starmer was forced to admit knowledge of Peter Mandelson’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein before appointing him as US ambassador.
Until that moment, Labour MPs who had loyally supported Starmer clung to the belief that he had only been aware of what was already in the public domain.
In fact, as countless commentators have noted, Starmer only had to Google to discover the depth of the cosy relationship between the convicted sex-offender Epstein and Mandelson, the architect of New Labour and the man credited with imposing Starmer as leader of the Labour Party.
On Wednesday, a clearly shaken Starmer faced demands for the release of documents detailing the vetting of Mandelson prior to him being given the job of US Ambassador.
Starmer’s attempt to add exemptions to any release of documents on the grounds of ‘national security’ and to ‘protect international relations’ caused uproar from both Labour and opposition MPs.
Facing defeat, it fell to Labour MP and potential Starmer rival Angela Rayner to come to his rescue with an amendment for the documents to be seen without redaction by the intelligence and security select committee who would decide on what exemptions could be made.
On Wednesday night, the Metropolitan Police put a block on this issuing a statement that it had blocked the release of certain documents in case they prejudiced a criminal investigation into accusations that Mandelson had shared confidential government documents with Epstein.
Starmer hopes to cling on and ride out the tide of public revulsion by apologising to the countless victims of billionaire paedophile Epstein for having ‘believed in Peter Mandelson’s lies’ when he appointed him as US Ambassador.
At a speech yesterday, Starmer insisted that he intended ‘to go on’ and warned Labour MPs that any attempt to dislodge him would be a victory for the Tories and Farage’s Reform Party.
The partial release in the US of the Epstein files have revealed the rotten, corrupt heart of capitalism and the politicians who serve it.
It has raised before the working class in the most direct way the question of removing not just Starmer but the entire Labour government.
The Labour government was elected on the pledge that it would be different from the Tories, that represented a real change from all the sleaze and corruption that brought down the government of Boris Johnson.
Above all, it achieved a massive majority of 174 on the pledge of ending Tory austerity attacks and defend ing the rights of workers.
In fact, what has been laid bare before the working class is a government that has shed any pretence of loyalty to workers and the trade unions but is entirely in the pocket of the bankers and bosses.
Mandelson, who along with Tony Blair created the New Labour project to break the Labour Party from the trade unions and turn it into an open party of the capitalist class, is just the most glaring symptom of the corruption, both political and financial, that is tearing the Labour government apart.
The time has come for the trade unions, which formed the Labour Party at the turn of the 20th century, to act and prevent any return of the Tories, who will seek to capitalise on Starmer’s collapse.
The immediate issue is to kick out not just Starmer but the entire Labour government and for the working class to take the power.
Workers must demand the TUC call an Emergency Congress to organise a general strike to bring down the Labour government replacing it with a workers government and socialism.
A workers government will expropriate the bosses and bankers and ensure that the criminals who profited from the depraved exploitation of young girls are brought before the courts to face justice.
The urgent requirement today is to build up the WRP and the Young Socialists to provide the leadership necessary for the victory of the British socialist revolution.