The Labour Party and Starmer won a landslide election victory less than two years ago, after a turbulent ten-year period in which the Conservative Tory Party steered the country out of the EU with five different prime ministers at the helm.
"Keir Starmer promised peace and quiet. Unlike, for example, the profligate former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he presented himself as the guy who always follows the rules," Tim Bale, a political science professor at Queen Mary University of London, told the AP.
The latest revelations in the unholy mess that arose from his ill-advised appointment of Peter Mandelson therefore make many voters see him not just as a liar but as a hypocrite, says Bale.
And hypocrisy is one of the very worst sins a British politician can commit.
Alarmed and under scrutiny
The handling of the sacked ambassador, former Labour leader and Jeffrey Epstein-linked Peter Mandelson, has weighed on Starmer's government for some time. As the prime minister has fended off accusations of poor judgement - and sacked several staff - more damning information has emerged.
Starmer had insisted that the appointment of Mandelson as ambassador to the US followed all the rules. Then The Guardian revealed that Mandelson had botched the security clearance for the job but was still given the green light.
The Prime Minister has angrily declared that he has been misled. The opposition accuses Starmer of deliberately misleading Parliament. The opposition parties, led by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, are demanding that Starmer resign.
The election will be a test of faith
Keir Starmer says no. In practice, it is up to his party colleagues, and from them there have been only a few demands for resignation.
Where the Tories have had recurring rebellions and leadership changes, Labour has a different tradition and a higher threshold for ousting a leader. An individual challenger must receive the support of at least a fifth of MPs, currently 81.
There is a larger group in the Labour ranks that has so far avoided taking a position, among them several ministers and some who are believed to have their own party leadership ambitions.
On Thursday, British local and regional elections are expected, where Labour is predicted to suffer a heavy defeat. Then, dissatisfaction could gain new momentum.
A challenger would want to let Starmer take full responsibility for a set of results that everyone assumes will be devastating, Steven Fielding, a professor at the University of Nottingham, told AFP.
Peter Mandelson - a knighted former Labour leader, minister and EU commissioner - was appointed Britain's ambassador to the United States in January 2025. In the fall, he was fired after it was revealed that he had much closer contact with Jeffrey Epstein than he had reported.
Mandelson had described his acquaintance with convicted sex offender and political networker Epstein as superficial. When the investigations into Epstein in the US became public, it emerged that the two were close friends, even after Epstein's convictions. Mandelson is being investigated for allegedly providing sensitive information to Epstein during his time in government.
The government says Mandelson lied. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has insisted the appointment followed all the rules. It later emerged that warnings had been raised in the security clearance process for the job, but they were ignored.
Several people involved have been dismissed: Starmer's chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney; the most senior official at the Foreign Office, Sir Olly Robbins; and several lower-ranking officials.
