Starmer Insists Government Will ‘Go Forward With Confidence’ Despite No.10 Chaos

Keir Starmer has insisted that the government will “go forward with confidence” even as his No.10 operation is falling apart.

The prime minister delivered his optimistic message in a highly-unusual address to his remaining Downing Street staff on Monday.

It came a day after his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney quit as the fallout continues over the Peter Mandelson scandal.

And in a further blow for the embattled PM, No.10 director of communications Tim Allan also quit this morning.

Starmer said: “We must prove that politics can be a force for good. I believe it can. I believe it is. We go forward from here. We go with confidence as we continue changing the country.”

A senior Labour source told HuffPost UK that Starmer’s comments were “delusional”.

Starmer also paid tribute to McSweeney, who said he was taking responsibility for advising the prime minister to appoint Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the Washington.

The disgraced former peer is now facing a police investigation over allegations he passed market sensitive information to the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein when he was business secretary between 2008 and 2010.

The prime minister said: “I’ve known Morgan for eight years as a colleague and as a friend. We have run up and down every political football pitch that is across the country. We’ve been in every battle that we needed to be in together. Fighting that battle.

“We changed the Labour Party together. We won a general election together. And none of that would have been possible without Morgan McSweeney.

“His dedication, his commitment and his loyalty to our party and our country was second to none. And I want to thank him for his service.”

Referring to Mandelson, he said: “The thing that makes me most angry is the undermining of the belief that politics can be a force for good and can change lives.

“I have been absolutely clear that I regret the decision that I made to appoint Peter Mandelson. And I’ve apologised to the victims which is the right thing to do.”

Starmer claims he was taken in by Mandelson’s “lies” about his friendship with Epstein when he decided to appoint him as the UK’s representative in Washington last year.