𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

A Labour insider has issued a damning verdict on under-pressure Sir Keir Starmer after another devastating week for the PM. Opposition leaders have called on Sir Keir to step down amid the Lord Peter Mandelson vetting fiasco, accusing him of misleading the Commons when he earlier said all processes were followed.

Many Labour backbenchers are also angry regarding the debacle, with new reports suggesting the tide is turning against Sir Keir within the party. Some of the Prime Minister’s supporters reportedly believe his premiership is entering its endgame, while others are also beginning to turn on him. One insider described Sir Keir as an “a****le” who isn’t up to the task.

“Lots of people think Keir Starmer is a good man who is out of his depth,” they told POLITICO. “Wrong. He’s an a****le who’s out of his depth.”

A dozen politicians, aides and officials reportedly spoke to the outlet, on condition of anonymity, describing a leader defined primarily by his absence.

In a scathing assessment of the PM, Sir Keir was accused of weaknesses including poor team management skills, no energy to drive change and no interest in political strategy.

Others did not agree, but some purportedly suggested he isn’t willing to do the tough work required of a Prime Minister, maybe because he likes time away from the office more than he should.

The Labour leader’s frequent trips overseas have seen Tories dub him ‘Never Here Keir’.

On Monday, Sir Keir blamed former top civil servant Sir Olly Robbins for deliberately keeping him in the dark over Lord Mandelson’s failure to pass security vetting checks before taking the role of ambassador to the US.

He said he would not have appointed Lord Mandelson if he had known the peer had failed the checks and insisted there was no pressure from Number 10 to push through the high-profile appointment.

Sir Keir fired Sir Olly from his role as the Foreign Office’s top official after finding out last week that Lord Mandelson had been granted security clearance despite failing the checks.

The Prime Minister faced accusations of lying to MPs by failing to set out the full picture around how Lord Mandelson was granted developed vetting (DV) status.

In a statement, he denied misleading the Commons when he told MPs that the proper process was followed.

“I accept that information that I should have had, and information that the House should have had should have been before the House, but I did not mislead the House, and that’s why I’ve set out the account in full,” he said.

He insisted he had been let down by officials, saying Sir Olly did not tell him the recommendation of United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) because he did not believe he was allowed to.

Sir Olly is set to give his account to MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

Allies of the Whitehall veteran have maintained national security vetting is legally independent of ministers, meaning the Foreign Office was not allowed to tell members of Government, Sky News reports.

pted responsibility for the decision to appoint Lord Mandelson, who was sacked after nine months in the job over his links with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.