Even among those polled who intend to vote Labour, a quarter (23 percent) believe Starmer should go — and almost one in three (32 percent) said his advisors should go even though they wanted the leader to remain.
The fieldwork for the polling was still being conducted when Morgan McSweeney and Tim Allan — two key aides in Starmer’s team — resigned.
“A majority of all voters — regardless of the party they’re planning to vote for — want some resignations over this, but only Labour voters say advisors should go rather than Starmer himself,” said Seb Wride, head of polling for Public First. “The events of the weekend may be enough to satisfy Labour activists and most of their voters, but it’ll be hard to convince those already opposed to Labour that they’re done enough to move on.”
The release of new documents detailing the depth of communications between Mandelson and Epstein, including discussions about sensitive government policy, has triggered a criminal investigation into Mandelson’s conduct in office. It has also sparked fresh questions for the British prime minister, who relieved Mandelson of his ambassadorship last year over the Epstein relationship and has newly apologized to Epstein’s victims for appointing him in the first place.
Starmer, whose Cabinet rowed in behind the PM on Monday, said Tuesday he will “never walk away from the country I love.”
He and his team have insisted they did not know the depth of Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein — further detailed in the documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice — when they appointed him ambassador in 2024. But at the time, it was public knowledge that Mandelson did have links with Epstein, and he had admitted that he regretted meeting him.