As King Charles III navigates Trumpworld in his state visit to Washington, D.C., British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is beating back rival parties’ attempts to drag him back into the mud of the Mandelson affair.
The premier narrowly avoided an investigation into his handling of Peter Mandelson’s appointment following a Tuesday debate in Parliament. The House of Commons voted on a proposal to refer Starmer to the Privileges Committee over the vetting process leading up to the appointment of a Jeffrey Epstein associate’s as ambassador to the United States.
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Labour successfully blocked the motion with a 335 to 223 vote, quashing the referral.
“The Conservative Party resorted to this desperate political stunt the week before the May elections because they have no answers on the cost of living or the NHS,” a spokesperson for 10 Downing Street said of the failed proposal.
Central to the debate was whether Starmer intentionally misled Parliament when he claimed Mandelson, who was known to have enjoyed a relationship with the convicted sex offender prior to his appointment, was subjected to “full due process” ahead of his post in Washington.
The prime minister subsequently reported to Parliament that British investigators had found sufficient reason not to appoint Mandelson as ambassador but that Foreign Office personnel disregarded this advice and pushed him through to the office.
Opposition lawmakers and some members of parliament within Starmer’s own Labour Party have questioned whether that initial claim of “due process” had amounted to a lie.
If the committee had been called upon to investigate Starmer — and if it had found him to have deliberately misled the House of Commons — he would have been all but forced to resign from his office.
Conservative Party Leader Kemi Badenoch accused the massive turnout of Labour MPs of “being whipped today to exonerate him before the facts have even been tested.”
The Tory leader was not alone in her criticism, with Labour backbencher Emma Lewell protesting the “out of touch” way that “today’s vote has been handled by the government.”
“The fact that MPs like me are being whipped into voting against this motion is, in my view, wrong,” Lewell said. “It has played into the terrible narrative that there is something to hide and good decent colleagues will be accused of being complicit in a cover-up.”
Fifteen Labour MPs ultimately broke ranks from the party and voted in favor of the inquiry — not nearly enough to pass it.
CHARLES GOES TO WASHINGTON: KING VISITS TRUMP WITH ‘SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP’ AT A LOW
Across the Atlantic Ocean, the head of state was enjoying a much more friendly atmosphere in Washington, D.C.
King Charles III, who landed in the U.S. on Monday, inaugurated his state visit with a ceremony at the White House hosted by President Donald Trump.
“Americans have had no closer friends than the British,” Trump said while welcoming the king. “We speak the same language, we hold the same values, and together, our warriors have defended the same extraordinary civilization under twin banners of red, white, and blue.”
The sovereign later addressed a joint meeting of Congress, where he urged greater cooperation and understanding from both sides of the Special Relationship.
