The UK’s Epstein Crisis
This deserves loud pushback.
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February 16, 2026
The UK’s Epstein Crisis
If Keir Starmer is safe for now, it’s only for lack of alternatives within his party.
Rachel Shabi
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Keir Starmer chats with disgraced former UK ambassador to the United States and alleged Epstein associate Peter Mandelson during a welcome reception at the ambassador’s residence in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2025.(Carl Court / Getty Images)
It took just 18 months for the Labour government to sink into the sand of its own morally adrift vacuity. Storming to power with an enviable majority in July 2024, after 14 years of fractious Conservative rule, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer promised stability, service over spectacle and a government of national renewal. Instead, we got the muddle of endless U-turns, persistent stagnation in the absence of joined-up, large-scale strategy and now, a full-blown crisis.
Starmer’s personal ratings are already at rock bottom—the worst of any prime minister on record. But newly released Epstein files have prompted the resignation from the party of former US ambassador Peter Mandelson, as well as a police investigation, with Starmer’s top aides stepping down and mounting calls for the prime minister to go. If he is safe for now, it is only for lack of alternatives within his party. The prime minister has promised to change. But it’s hard to believe, much less feel sympathy for someone who brought this upon himself—not just the Epstein-related scandal but the dismal fortunes of the party in general. In any case, sympathies, now and always, should remain with the victims of Epstein’s heinous abuses, the countless women and girls for whom justice is constantly denied in the face of rotten political machinations.
The trigger for this government crisis, which has dominated the UK news cycle for the past week, is the US Department of Justice’s release of over 3 million documents from the Epstein files in late January. Some of those documents feature the now-disgraced Peter Mandelson, one of the key figures of the New Labour project during the Tony Blair years and well beyond. He had already been removed from his US ambassador role last September, when e-mails surfaced in which he appeared to defend or minimize the actions of his friend the convicted child sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. But the latest Epstein files were worse.
This time, there were bank statements showing payments totaling $75,000 from Epstein to Mandelson and his now-husband, Reinaldo Avila, although Mandelson says he has no record or recollection of receiving this sum. The new haul reveals that Epstein paid £10,000 ($13,500) for Avila’s osteopathy course. There are photos of …
This deserves loud pushback.
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Current Issue
February 16, 2026
The UK’s Epstein Crisis
If Keir Starmer is safe for now, it’s only for lack of alternatives within his party.
Rachel Shabi
Share
Copy Link
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Ad Policy
Keir Starmer chats with disgraced former UK ambassador to the United States and alleged Epstein associate Peter Mandelson during a welcome reception at the ambassador’s residence in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2025.(Carl Court / Getty Images)
It took just 18 months for the Labour government to sink into the sand of its own morally adrift vacuity. Storming to power with an enviable majority in July 2024, after 14 years of fractious Conservative rule, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer promised stability, service over spectacle and a government of national renewal. Instead, we got the muddle of endless U-turns, persistent stagnation in the absence of joined-up, large-scale strategy and now, a full-blown crisis.
Starmer’s personal ratings are already at rock bottom—the worst of any prime minister on record. But newly released Epstein files have prompted the resignation from the party of former US ambassador Peter Mandelson, as well as a police investigation, with Starmer’s top aides stepping down and mounting calls for the prime minister to go. If he is safe for now, it is only for lack of alternatives within his party. The prime minister has promised to change. But it’s hard to believe, much less feel sympathy for someone who brought this upon himself—not just the Epstein-related scandal but the dismal fortunes of the party in general. In any case, sympathies, now and always, should remain with the victims of Epstein’s heinous abuses, the countless women and girls for whom justice is constantly denied in the face of rotten political machinations.
The trigger for this government crisis, which has dominated the UK news cycle for the past week, is the US Department of Justice’s release of over 3 million documents from the Epstein files in late January. Some of those documents feature the now-disgraced Peter Mandelson, one of the key figures of the New Labour project during the Tony Blair years and well beyond. He had already been removed from his US ambassador role last September, when e-mails surfaced in which he appeared to defend or minimize the actions of his friend the convicted child sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. But the latest Epstein files were worse.
This time, there were bank statements showing payments totaling $75,000 from Epstein to Mandelson and his now-husband, Reinaldo Avila, although Mandelson says he has no record or recollection of receiving this sum. The new haul reveals that Epstein paid £10,000 ($13,500) for Avila’s osteopathy course. There are photos of …
The UK’s Epstein Crisis
This deserves loud pushback.
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The UK’s Epstein Crisis
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Current Issue
February 16, 2026
The UK’s Epstein Crisis
If Keir Starmer is safe for now, it’s only for lack of alternatives within his party.
Rachel Shabi
Share
Copy Link
Facebook
X (Twitter)
Bluesky Pocket
Email
Ad Policy
Keir Starmer chats with disgraced former UK ambassador to the United States and alleged Epstein associate Peter Mandelson during a welcome reception at the ambassador’s residence in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2025.(Carl Court / Getty Images)
It took just 18 months for the Labour government to sink into the sand of its own morally adrift vacuity. Storming to power with an enviable majority in July 2024, after 14 years of fractious Conservative rule, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer promised stability, service over spectacle and a government of national renewal. Instead, we got the muddle of endless U-turns, persistent stagnation in the absence of joined-up, large-scale strategy and now, a full-blown crisis.
Starmer’s personal ratings are already at rock bottom—the worst of any prime minister on record. But newly released Epstein files have prompted the resignation from the party of former US ambassador Peter Mandelson, as well as a police investigation, with Starmer’s top aides stepping down and mounting calls for the prime minister to go. If he is safe for now, it is only for lack of alternatives within his party. The prime minister has promised to change. But it’s hard to believe, much less feel sympathy for someone who brought this upon himself—not just the Epstein-related scandal but the dismal fortunes of the party in general. In any case, sympathies, now and always, should remain with the victims of Epstein’s heinous abuses, the countless women and girls for whom justice is constantly denied in the face of rotten political machinations.
The trigger for this government crisis, which has dominated the UK news cycle for the past week, is the US Department of Justice’s release of over 3 million documents from the Epstein files in late January. Some of those documents feature the now-disgraced Peter Mandelson, one of the key figures of the New Labour project during the Tony Blair years and well beyond. He had already been removed from his US ambassador role last September, when e-mails surfaced in which he appeared to defend or minimize the actions of his friend the convicted child sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. But the latest Epstein files were worse.
This time, there were bank statements showing payments totaling $75,000 from Epstein to Mandelson and his now-husband, Reinaldo Avila, although Mandelson says he has no record or recollection of receiving this sum. The new haul reveals that Epstein paid £10,000 ($13,500) for Avila’s osteopathy course. There are photos of …
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