Sir Keir Starmer came under fire from London Labour grandees over his handling of the Mandelson scandal.
Baroness Harriet Harman tore into him for believing “Prince of Darkness” Lord Mandelson over his ties with the paedophile financier.
The former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party piled pressure on the Prime Minister as he fights for his job.
Sir Keir has apologised to Epstein’s victims for believing Lord Mandelson’s “lies” during his appointment process to become Britain’s ambassador to the US.
But Baroness Harman, former MP for Camberwell and Peckham, said it looked “weak and naive and gullible” for the PM to say “he lied to me” and warned the scandal would “finish him off” unless he took the right course of action.
“Peter Mandelson was called the Prince of Darkness,” the Labour grandee told Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast.
“It’s not a secret that he was a bad person.
“I think that it is very, very serious for Keir Starmer because it goes to the values of the Government.”
Former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell, a grandee on the Left of the party, said Sir Keir had “lost all sense of judgment” as the Mandelson storm grew.
“I believe Keir is a responsible person & will want to consider whether in the interests of the country & party he should continue as PM,” he messaged on X.
“We may need a caretaker leader specifically appointed for a time limited period to undertake a cleansing of our party and politics before we elect a new leader.”
Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent North, also ratcheted up the pressure on the Prime Minister, saying he should “think very hard about what’s in the country’s best interest”
Baroness Ayesha Hazarika, a former adviser to Baroness Harman, suggested there was an element of “misogyny” over Lord Mandelson’s appointment, with senior male figures being “lionised”.
Speaking to the London Standard podcast, she also called for Lord Mandelson to be hit with the “full force of the law.”
With Sir Keir’s chief-of-staff Morgan McSweeney under fire over Lord Mandelson’s appointment, Baroness Harman called for a “real reset” in No10.
Asked whether the Prime Minister had become a "drag" on the Labour Party, Home Office minister Mike Tapp told Sky News: "We're starting to turn the corner.
"I believe if we stick with Keir Starmer, which we will, then that corner will turn faster and people will start to feel it.
"But I completely understand the anger and the distress at what's happened with Peter Mandelson's appointment. “
But backbenchers MPs have called for either Mr McSweeney to be sacked or for Sir Keir himself to step down after the bombshell revelations about Lord Mandelson’s dealings with child sex offender Epstein.
In a speech on Thursday, the Prime Minister insisted that “none of us knew the depth of the darkness” of the peer’s relationship with Epstein when he was appointed ambassador to the US last year.
The Met Police are investigating allegations that Lord Mandelson, who has stepped down from the Lords, passed on market-sensitive information to Epstein when he was Business Secretary following the 2008 financial crisis.
Other documents released by the US Department of Justice also laid bare the apparent extent of the pair’s relationship, with messages appearing to show Lord Mandelson celebrate the paedophile’s release from jail as “Liberation day”.
Amid growing uncertainty about his political future, Sir Keir said on Thursday he shared the “anger and frustration” of colleagues about the saga but vowed to continue as Prime Minister.
The Daily Mail reported that Sir Keir’s former deputy, Angela Rayner, who led a Commons revolt over the release of the Mandelson files, had told friends she was “ready” to launch a leadership campaign.
A spokesperson for Ms Rayner said: “We don’t recognise these claims.”
Anger was still simmering among Labour MPs about Downing Street’s attempt to control the release of potentially explosive documents providing insight into how the decision was made to make Lord Mandelson an ambassador.
The Government backed down and ceded control to Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) to decide what could be released into the public domain in the face of a Labour mutiny on Wednesday.
The release could be delayed because the Met Police has asked the Government not to publish documents that would “undermine” its probe.
The ISC said it could not provide a timetable for releasing the documents as it reviews whether some of the papers should be withheld for national security reasons.
