UK PM's top aide quits in scandal over ex-ambassador's links to Epstein

Morgan McSweeney resigns as Keir Starmer’s chief of staff after key role in ’24 victory, amid outcry over ex-envoy to the US Peter Mandelson’s ties to late American sex offender

LONDON (AFP) — Embattled British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief of staff resigned on Sunday over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington despite links to US convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“After careful reflection, I have decided to resign from the government. The decision to appoint Peter Mandelson was wrong. He has damaged our party, our country and trust in politics itself,” Morgan McSweeney, Downing Street’s chief of staff, said in a statement.

“I advised the Prime Minister to make that appointment and I take full responsibility for that advice,” he added.

The 48-year-old Irishman always maintained a low profile but was dubbed by some as the “most powerful man in politics” having played a key role in Starmer’s emphatic election victory in July 2024.

He is credited with helping to move the Labour Party towards a more centrist policy agenda following leftist ex-leader Jeremy Corbyn’s ill-fated tenure.

He was also said to have been close to Mandelson, who previously helped ex-prime minister Tony Blair transform the party and its fortunes in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

FILE – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, right, talks with Britain’s ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson during a welcome reception at the ambassador’s residence on February 26, 2025, in Washington. (Carl Court/Pool Photo via AP, file)

The resignation came as the foreign ministry said it was reviewing an exit payment to Mandelson, who was sacked by Starmer last September over his friendship with the late Epstein.

Mandelson, a pivotal figure in British politics and the Labour Party for decades, received an estimated pay-out of between £38,750 and £55,000 ($52,000 to $74,000) after only seven months in the job, according to a report in the Sunday Times.

Documents released on January 30 by the US Justice Department appear to show that Mandelson allegedly leaked confidential UK government information to financier Epstein when he was a British minister, including during the 2008 financial crisis.

The revelation has placed intense pressure on Starmer and triggered a police investigation into Mandelson, 72, for alleged misconduct in a public office.

The Foreign Office said in a statement it had launched a review into Mandelson’s severance payment “in light of further information that has now been revealed and the ongoing police investigation.”

Former British ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson walks up Downing Street during a visit by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky to 10 Downing Street, central London, on June 23, 2025, on the eve of a NATO Summit. (Ben STANSALL / AFP)

Cabinet minister Pat McFadden earlier insisted Starmer should remain in office despite his “terrible mistake” in appointing Mandelson.

He said the real blame lay “squarely” with Mandelson for putting himself forward for the job despite knowing the extent of his relationship with Epstein.

Starmer’s deputy, David Lammy, became the first cabinet minister to appear to distance himself from the premier, according to a report in the Sunday Telegraph.

The deputy prime minister had not been in favor of appointing Mandelson due to his known links to Epstein, the report quoted friends of Lammy as saying.

Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy speaks during the UK Ukraine: 100 Year Partnership Forum in Kyiv, Ukraine, January 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Starmer’s Labour Party took power just over 18 months ago in a landslide election victory.

But it has been trailing Nigel Farage’s anti-immigrant Reform UK as the government has come under fire over immigration, economic growth and the cost of living crisis.

Reform UK has led by double-digit figures in the polls for the past year.

Mandelson, also a former European Union trade commissioner, stood down from parliament’s unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords, earlier this week.

A man looks at newspapers on sale showing headlines relating to the Epstein files in London, on February 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

The ex-envoy was one of numerous prominent figures further embarrassed by last week’s latest revelations of ties to financier Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while facing charges of alleged sex trafficking.

US officials ruled Epstein’s death a suicide.

A spokesperson for law firm Mishcon de Reya, representing Mandelson, said he “regrets, and will regret until his dying day, that he believed Epstein’s lies about his criminality.”

“Lord Mandelson did not discover the truth about Epstein until after his death in 2019. He is profoundly sorry that powerless and vulnerable women and girls were not given the protection they deserved,” the law firm said.

Starmer paid tribute to McSweeney in a statement. It was “largely thanks to his dedication, loyalty and leadership that we won a landslide majority,” he said.

“Our party and I owe him a debt of gratitude,” he added.