British 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 U.K. 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¡¯s the perilous domestic subtext as President Donald Trump flies in to Britain for an 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 Bloomberg News investigation which revealed his relationship with pedophile 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 U.K. 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 leadership challenge.
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