‘Sack Starmer’ – Furious petition launched to urgently axe prime minister

A Conservative MP has created a petition calling on Sir Keir Starmer to be “sacked” as Prime Minister. Graham Stuart, the member of parliament for Beverley and Holderness, has created the petition on his personal website, claiming that “the Prime Minister appears to have lied to the country about the appointment of Peter Mandelson.”

Starmer is facing mounting pressure after it emerged the Foreign Office overruled a security vetting process to clear Lord Peter Mandelson to become UK ambassador to the US. There are also allegations that the Labour leader misled parliament when claiming that due process had been followed in the appointment. Mr Stuart said on Talk TV: “Looking at this extraordinary Guardian story that the Prime Minister lied to the country and to parliament repeatedly about the appointment of the most important diplomat that this country can put in place because he said that security vetting had given, and I quote, ‘clearance for the role.’”

The petition calls on Labour MPs to trigger a vote of no confidence in their party’s leader, with defeat in the vote spelling the end of his premiership.

The Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch has accused the Prime Minister of breaching the ministerial code by failing to notify Parliament that he had told it “something that isn’t true” at the earliest opportunity.

She told the BBC: “Let’s pretend that they only just found out about this, the ministerial code says that if you find out that you have told Parliament something that isn’t true, and you told Parliament inadvertently, you need to tell the House at the earliest opportunity.

“The earliest opportunity was Wednesday, during Prime Minister’s Questions, why didn’t he tell anyone that?

“If it is true that they only just found out, they had an opportunity to say so, and they did not. That itself is a resignation offence.”

Claims that the Prime Minister was not informed of Mandelson’s failure to obtain developed vetting have been labelled as “not credible” by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

Foreign Office permanent under-secretary Sir Olly Robbins was last night sacked over the incident, with Farage calling him a “sacrificial lamb”.

The Reform UK leader told LBC the explanation is: “Just not credible, not believable in any way at all. I am in absolutely no doubt in my mind that this Prime Minister misled the House of Commons and lied to the country outside of the House of Commons.”

He added: “None of this adds up, the idea they weren’t told about the vetting. Remember, in the House of Commons, Starmer actually said that the vetting had told him about the ongoing relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, then outside of the House, in Hastings, he gave a speech in which he said that Mandelson had cleared security vetting.

“They are all over the place on this, it is totally unbelievable and Robbins, he’s the sacrificial lamb in an attempt to try and save the Prime Minister, and it just isn’t good enough.”