On 20 April, Keir Starmer stood before parliament and attempted to justify making Peter Mandelson our ambassador to the US. While it was always inexcusable to hire the twice-disgraced Mandelson, the situation has looked even worse recently. As we now all know, Mandelson failed his security vetting but ended up in the position anyway. Starmer wants us to believe he had no idea about the failed vetting, but few do. Now, it looks like his ministers – namely Ed Miliband have begun to accept that the situation is unsalvageable for the PM:
There appears to be something going on this morning. Labour MPs are starting the process of uncircling the wagons. https://t.co/G4Vh43lFtG
— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) April 21, 2026
Terminal mistakes, as Miliband points out
In the clip above, Miliband does not say that he thinks Starmer should go. What he does do is provide next to no defence for the situation that Starmer has created. He also just looks miserable and defeated, adding to the impression that the party is over and it’s time for everyone in the Starmer government to go home.
The clip begins with Sophy Ridge putting the following to Miliband:
SOPHY RIDGE: My argument isn’t that it was rushed [Mandelson’s appointment]. My argument is that Keir Starmer knew this stuff before, right? We knew that Mandelson had been sacked twice. We knew that he had a relationship with a convicted paedophile. We knew that he had a lobbying company with links to Chinese firms, right? We knew this stuff.
ED MILIBAND: So you’re saying he should never have been appointed?
SOPHY RIDGE: Yeah.
ED MILIBAND: And I agree with you.
SOPHY RIDGE: But that’s Keir Starmer’s fault, isn’t it? Not Ollie Robbins’ fault.
ED MILIBAND: Well, yeah, and he said that.
SOPHY RIDGE: But look who’s lost their jobs, right? The chief of staff has lost a job. Olly Robbins has lost his job. The head of the Civil Service has lost his job. The director of communications has lost his job. Should Keir Starmer lose his job? He was the one who made the error, as you admit.
ED MILIBAND: Well, I don’t think so, no. Obviously, I don’t, because I think prime ministers make errors. Prime ministers are fallible. Prime ministers are human.
We’re interjecting here to note that we’ve seen no evidence that Starmer is human. Conversely, we’ve seen a great deal of evidence supporting the fact that he’s fallible.
Miliband continued:
ED MILIBAND: I steered well clear of Peter Mandelson when I became Labour leader in 2010. But people make mistakes. And, you know, the point about mistake is, do you fess up to it and say, ‘yeah, I made an error?’
The issue isn’t that he made a mistake; the issue is that he made the sort of mistake only a highly incompetent person could make.
In other words, he’s not fit to be PM.
Ministers plural
Ridge later asked:
SOPHY RIDGE: What went through your mind when you saw he’d been appointed as US ambassador?
ED MILIBAND: Well, that it could blow up. That it could go wrong.
SOPHY RIDGE: Did you say that to anyone?
ED MILIBAND: I had a conversation with David Lammy about it before the appointment. And I said I was worried about it. I do want to say one thing, though, which is-
SOPHY RIDGE: What did David Lammy say then?
ED MILIBAND: Well, I think he was worried about it, too.
So now we have two ministers who are on the record as having had the foresight which Starmer lacks.
Unless Lammy comes forward to dispute Miliband said, obviously, although we can’t see him doing that at this point.
Clearly, the writing is on the wall.
Familiarity
Miliband also said:
ED MILIBAND: Peter Mandelson was a very familiar figure in the sort of 30-year history of the Labour Party, and it’s almost like that familiarity… It’s almost like his flaws and so on just got almost sort of faded into the background, and that was obviously wrong.
Another way of looking at this is that Peter Mandelson and politicians like him have normalised the Labour Party having zero moral centre.
You could also say this makes the argument for individuals not having political careers which span decades. While it’s true some politicians are still representing their constituencies many years in, other grandees are clearly just settling scores and enriching themselves.
Dead duck – and Miliband is not the only one showing it
Miliband isn’t the only Labour politician putting some distance between himself and Starmer. On Monday 20 April, MPs actually put physical distance between themselves and the PM:
Labour whips have noticed too.
Message sent to MPs: “If any [parliamentary private secretaries] are able to head back to the chamber, benches are looking quite empty.” https://t.co/GwD8NfTZuw
— Kevin Schofield (@KevinASchofield) April 20, 2026
And the issues go beyond Mandelson too:
Labour MP Sarah Champion tells the Today programme: “I’ll be honest with you, people don’t like Keir on the door. But it’s not about this Mandelson thing, they don’t like him personally.”
— Kevin Schofield (@KevinASchofield) April 21, 2026
Because of his many scandals, Starmer entered the beginning of the end of his career within months of taking office.
We’re now at the end of the end, and after Labour get wiped out in the local elections, the party will soon replace him.
Featured image via Sky News
By Willem Moore
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