Epstein’s ghost may haunt Trump in UK as Starmer swamped by crisis

Prime Minister Keir Starmer was elected last July promising a “quieter” politics after years of chaos and scandal under the Conservatives. Losing two senior members of the UK government to scandal in less than a week sees the premier facing a charge he could never have imagined: that his Labour administration is no less noisy than the Tories.

That is the perilous domestic subtext as US President Donald Trump flies to Britain for a historic second state visit on Tuesday.

The timing of the three-day trip could barely be more awkward for Starmer, coming just days after he sacked his ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, following a report which revealed his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein lasted longer than previously known. The prospect of a joint news briefing in which Trump and Starmer are repeatedly asked about Epstein is giving UK government officials nightmares, one said.

The president arrives in a country that appears in permanent political crisis. The departures of Mandelson and former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner in a tax scandal a week prior have left serious questions about Starmer’s judgment and even sparked speculation that he could face a leadership challenge.

Later this month, he faces the intense scrutiny of the Labour Party’s annual convention where rivals will further test his authority. Then, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves will deliver a pivotal November budget, expected to raise taxes in a bid to calm a bond market that controls the UK’s financial fortunes. That risks entrenching what many fear is a doom loop of low growth as major businesses like Ineos and Merck pull investments in the UK.

Trump’s visit offers little respite and feeds into a growing feeling among Labour lawmakers and aides that 10 Downing Street is in survival mode, just trying to get through each week. Labour figures compared Starmer’s administration to the dying days of the previous Tory governments, but after only 14 months in power, rather than 14 years. One said things were so bad that “Operation Save Keir” was under way inside No 10.