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Keir Starmer is fighting for survival after Peter Mandelson’s sacking plunged Labour into a full-blown meltdown. The Prime Minister was branded “weak” having dithered about getting rid of the disgraced peer over his close friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

His dramatic departure as ambassador to the US throws the government deeper into crisis, just a week after Angela Rayner’s humiliating resignation, with senior politicians suggesting Sir Keir could be “gone by Christmas” himself. The scandal is likely to overshadow President Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK next week, where he will meet King Charles, with critics accusing the Prime Minister of putting the monarch in a “terrible position”.

The Prime Minister, who picked the Labour grandee to be the UK’s representative in Washington, finally acted after another cache of messages emerged from the Labour peer to the notorious paedophile.

Details of the newly-uncovered emails had been sent to Lord Mandelson for comment on Monday – but Sir Keir continued to voice “full confidence” in him during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.

Sources insisted the messages had not even been available to the peer himself when he was appointed as Ambassador last year, as they were in an old account.

As a result they were not considered in vetting.

But Kemi Badenoch accused the Labour leader of putting “party before country”.

“Peter Mandelson is now gone, but Keir Starmer failed yet another key test of leadership,” the Tory leader said.

“He gave his full backing to a man unfit for office.”

She added: “He is a weak Prime Minister, who doesn’t have the courage to do the right thing at the right time.”

Former Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Sir Keir’s future as Prime Minister is in serious doubt.

He said: “What a total fiasco, this is all Starmer’s fault. I can see him being gone by Christmas.”

It is the third time Lord Mandelson – known as the “Prince of Darkness” – has been booted from government having twice been forced to resign under Tony Blair.

And it comes just six days after Sir Keir was forced into a panicky reshuffle triggered by Ms Rayner’s resignation over her tax affairs.

The party is facing a simmering civil war as the battle to replace her as deputy leader intensifies.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “The sacking of Lord Mandelson had become inevitable.

“The Prime Minister is becoming ever more distanced from his parliamentary party.”

The double departures come after a calamitous 14-months in No 10 for Sir Keir which has seen his government lurch from crisis to crisis.

Freebie scandals, bumper tax raids, targeting pensioners and a string of ministers losing their jobs has seen Labour plummet in the polls behind Reform.

In the damning new emails, Lord Mandelson told his “best pal” Epstein to “fight for early release” shortly before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

And in 2008 he told the billionaire financier – found dead in his cell in 2019 awaiting trial for molesting hundreds of schoolgirls – that “I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened.”

The Prime Minister had defended Lord Mandelson until the emergence of the emails, insisting he had gone through a proper vetting process and had helped build a successful relationship with President Trump’s White House.

Lord Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein had been known about, but Bloomberg and The Sun published emails showing that the relationship continued after the crimes committed by the financier had emerged.

Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty told MPs that information had not been known when Lord Mandelson was appointed.

He told MPs the emails showed “the depth and extent of Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment”.

He added: “In particular, Lord Mandelson’s suggestion that Jeffrey Epstein’s first conviction was wrongful and should be challenged is new information.

“And in light of that, and mindful, as we all are, of the victims of Epstein’s appalling crimes, he has been withdrawn as ambassador with immediate effect.”

The cache of emails obtained by Bloomberg showed that on the day before Epstein reported to jail in June 2008, Lord Mandelson told him “your friends stay with you and love you”.

He said: “You have to be incredibly resilient, fight for early release and be philosophical about it as much as you can.

“The whole thing has been years of torture and now you have to show the world how big a person you are and how strong.”

Lord Mandelson, who flew on Epstein’s private jet – dubbed the “Lolita Express” – and stayed at his Caribbean hideaway known as “orgy island” has claimed Epstein had never offered “any introductions to women… perhaps because I am a gay man”.

The latest furore erupted on Monday when US lawmakers released a 238-page album compiled by Epstein’s socialite girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell for his 50th birthday in 2003.

In it was a fawning ten-page handwritten greeting from Lord Mandelson with holiday snaps from his 2002 trip to Epstein’s island.

One showed him wearing a white dressing gown chatting to Epstein.

No 10 said that Lord Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein was “a matter of public record” before his appointment.

Lord Mandelson’s position had appeared increasingly precarious after the release of the emails drew public criticism from members of the Government and setting backbenchers.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he was “completely disgusted” by the messages while mutinous Labour MPs including Richard Burgon and Nadia Whittome had called on Sir Keir to sack Lord Mandelson, 71.

Backbencher Andy McDonald warned earlier that there is “widespread revulsion” in the party.

Downing Street would not say whether Lord Mandelson had misled the vetting process for his appointment as US ambassador.

But the timing of his sacking causes a diplomatic headache ahead of President Trump’s state visit next week, with the US president facing questions over his own ties with Epstein.

Tory MP Neil O’Brien, said: “There is huge turmoil ahead and I cannot believe that the Government put our monarch in this terrible position.”

James Roscoe will be the interim ambassador to the US and has taken over with immediate effect.

He was made deputy head of mission at the British Embassy in Washington in July 2022 and before that was UK ambassador to the UN General Assembly from 2019.

Mr Roscoe also previously worked as the late Queen Elizabeth II’s communications director and as chief press officer at No 10 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.