Labour MP makes brutal admission about Keir Starmer’s popularity

A Labour MP has admitted voters do not like Sir Ker Starmer “personally”, in a scathing assessment of the Prime Minister’s popularity. Sarah Champion became the latest Labour Parliamentarian to issue a damning verdict on her party leader amid the Mandelson scandal.

She said: “I’ll be honest with you people don’t like Keir on the door but it’s not over this Mandelson thing. They don’t like him personally. There has been a fantastic campaign by opposition parties to undermine him.” She is the chair of the influential Commons International Development Committee.

Her comment followed those by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, who said Sir Keir’s decision to appoint Lord Peter Mandelson as US ambassador “worried” both him and then Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

The Cabinet Minister admitted he “steered well clear” of the disgraced Labour grandee when he was Labour leader.

Sir Keir’s Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood also voiced frustration with the government because “we ourselves in the Labour party are getting in our own way”.

Meanwhile former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner is set to appear at an event in central London on Tuesday where she will say the Government needs to take “bolder action” and employ a “bolder story” on how it is serving people across the country.

Several media outlets reported over the weekend that Ms Rayner had met Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham at her home in Ashton-under-Lyne. Both are seen as potential contenders to replace the Prime Minister should a leadership contest take place.

The meeting came weeks before local elections in England where Labour is expected to face a bloodbath.

Lord Mandelson was sacked after nine months in the post over his links with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, and the scandal continues to cause damage to Sir Keir’s premiership.

The Prime Minister was questioned by MPs for more than two hours on Monday over the revelation that the peer failed vetting checks but was still granted security clearance by officials to take up the post.