This is an extraordinary moment in British politics. A decade of lies and Westminster group think has been torn down by the dead hand of Jeffrey Epstein. All the chickens have come home to roost.
The Prince of Darkness, Peter Mandleson, the key figure alongside Tony Blair who created New Labour, has been hurled from the heights of power as US ambassador into the abyss of disgrace due to his deep ties with Epstein. This was compounded by the revelation of his sharing government secrets with the sex trafficker following the 2008 financial crisis.
Mandelson protege Morgan McSweeney, the key architect in the resurrection of the New (now Blue) Labour project, has resigned over his role in sending Mandelson to Washington. His fall follows a decade building Labour Together with the backing of millionaire donors to rid the party of the Corbyn left.
Today, only former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn emerges from the scandal as vindicated by his principled stance opposing New Labour’s support for US imperial wars and corporate influence.
Mandelson viscerally hated him and did everything he could to bring him down. Throughout his leadership, Corbyn put Mandelson into the deep freeze.
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The Starmer leadership saw its four-year effort to “change” the Labour Party and remove the “stain” of antisemitism following Corbyn apparently triumph with the first Labour election victory in 14 years. (Labour came close to winning under Corbyn in 2017, but sabotage by right-wing Labour officials prevented it.)
The fact that this effort saw Labour suspend or expel dozens of anti-Zionist Jewish members was irrelevant – the media systematically ignored the falsehoods of the party’s “antisemitism” purges.
The narrative was set, and the mainstream media was only too happy to echo this mantra until it became the established truth.
Eighteen months ago, with a 170-seat majority, McSweeney was king of the world. Now he is gone. For now at least.
Streeting’s Mandelson ties
Health Secretary Wes Streeting was another long-time protege and friend of Mandelson. Now his hopes to become the next prime minister to replace Starmer are in serious doubt.
In a calculated move, this week he released a selection of WhatsApp messages with Mandelson in which he said Israel was committing war crimes and should be sanctioned.
The project built by McSweeney around Starmer, aided by Mandelson, was brittle, authoritarian, factional and paranoid, as well as sexist and racist
But the record is clear: throughout the two-year genocide Streeting loyally stuck with Starmer’s policy of maintaining the alliance with Israel, avoiding serious action over its crimes, offering military and diplomatic support, while making performative criticism to distance Labour from the horrors committed by its ally in Gaza.
The mainstream media are now revealed to be entirely complicit in this rehabilitation of Mandelson, ignoring his Epstein links, and giving acres of softball coverage to the man who loved wealth and power, and wanted so badly to live like his billionaire friends.
More scandals could emerge: Mandelson’s lobby firm Global Counsel was working for the US tech surveillance firm Palantir, and arranged an “off the books” visit for Keir Starmer to the company’s US HQ last year.
Weeks later, the UK signed a no-bid contract with Palantir for £240m ($328m). Critics say the Ministry of Defence contract looks deeply suspect, and should be investigated.
Numerous MoD officials had recently joined Palantir – and pressure is mounting on ministers over what looks like state capture by a Trump- and Israel-linked US surveillance firm.
Israel links
Mandelson joined Labour HQ in the mid-1980s under Neil Kinnock, when the journey toward New Labour began. His communications background was seen as a huge gift that could help Labour on the road back to power.
Mandelson’s salary was reportedly paid by an associate of Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of Robert Maxwell, the media magnate and Israeli spy who was honoured with a state funeral on the Mount of Olives, attended by two Israeli prime ministers and the president.
Ghislaine’s influence was crucial, helping turn Epstein into a prominent sex trafficker who drew in the rich and powerful of the Anglo-American elite, including members of the royal families of England and Norway.
The whole structure of neoliberalism, of state capture by corporations and billionaire influence, is now being exposed through the Epstein files
It’s no exaggeration to say that the whole structure of neoliberalism, of state capture by corporations and billionaire influence, is now being exposed through the Epstein files as a criminal complex oiled through organised exploitation of vulnerable women and girls.
Corbyn – the political figure who over decades consistently opposed the injustice and criminality of western governments and capitalism, and remained an ardent supporter of Palestinian rights – is once again proven right.
Starmer betrayed Corbyn, stabbing him in the back after pretending to be a part of his progressive project from 2015-19. Now Starmer’s days are numbered, his popularity the lowest on record for any prime minister.
The project built by McSweeney around Starmer, aided by his mentor Mandelson, was brittle, authoritarian, factional and paranoid, as well as sexist and racist.
It cared nothing for the victims, be they trafficked women and children, or the Palestinian men, women and children of Gaza. It suspended black and Muslim female MPs for the slightest infraction.
By crushing the left, and abandoning popular Corbyn policies that Starmer had himself signed up to – such as nationalising utilities, abolishing student tuition fees, ending NHS outsourcing and opposing illegal wars – the clique around Starmer broke the promise of change that voters expected.
Backing Israel’s genocide was only the most extreme example.
The changes they have brought in have been done reluctantly, and after a series of screeching U-turns, such as belatedly abolishing the two-child benefit cap. What voters see through all this is more of the same cuts and cost of living crisis.
Who can follow Starmer?
The problem now faced by Labour’s centrist leadership – and the carefully selected MPs who came into parliament under the McSweeney machine – is that they have lost what little popular support they had, and they have no vision, and no leader to take forward that project.
Their only hope is to find a credible soft left figure who can prevent the party and government being swept away by Nigel Farage’s Reform party.
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Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham was that figure, before Starmer and McSweeney blocked his possible route back to parliament. Now, Labour faces a humiliating defeat in a Manchester byelection this month, and likely disaster in elections across England, Scotland and Wales in May.
Labour’s failed strategy has been to mimic the anti-migrant populists of Reform, but now faces a major threat to its left from the Greens under Zack Polanski, who have stepped into the progressive terrain abandoned by Starmer. Corbyn’s new party is for now divided and its future unclear.
Reform is in poll position to ride the wave of popular revulsion against scandals in Westminster. But that promises to end with yet another political charlatan in Downing Street, following Boris Johnson and Starmer.
The future of UK politics is up for grabs, but whatever happens, Corbyn remains the key figure in the revival of British democratic socialism and opposition to war. That project has been declared dead many times – first by Blair, then by Starmer.
Now it is their project that is in the dustbin of history.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
