Politics

Peter Mandelson’s position was completely unsustainable, but it took Sir Keir Starmer 24 hours after everybody else to realise the inevitable. In the chaotic interim, this generated the extraordinary spectacle of No10 saying that they had full confidence in their man in Washington because – and it feels incredible to type this – No10 had…

MPs are demanding Peter Mandelson appears on British soil to give evidence on his relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. But there is frustration within parliament at Lord Mandelson’s ability to avoid scrutiny. Sky News has learned that the powerful Foreign Affairs Select Committee of MPs made a request to hear from Lord Mandelson after he…

Housing minister Alison McGovern has pulled out of the Labour deputy leadership race. In a statement posted on social media, the MP for Birkenhead said it was “clear that momentum has shifted” and she wasn’t going to progress to the next stage. Politics Live: Candidate drops out of race to be Labour’s new deputy leader…

Britain has “fallen out of love with the future” and is “out of whack” on free speech, former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has warned. The ex-Liberal Democrat leader, who was David Cameron’s second-in-command during the coalition of 2010-2015, said the country was suffering from a sense of “underlying grumpiness”. Following last summer’s riots, the…

Bridget Phillipson has emerged as the early frontrunner in the Labour deputy leadership race as other candidates scramble to catch up ahead of a crunch deadline. The education secretary had the backing of 44 colleagues as of 6pm on Tuesday, according to the first official tally released by the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) since nominations…

The race to replace Angela Rayner as deputy Labour leader has started. She resigned on 5 September from government and from her party post after she was found to have breached the ministerial code for not paying enough stamp duty on a second home she purchased in Hove, East Sussex, earlier this year. Politics latest:…

Files from a ‘birthday book’ compiled for the sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein appear to include a glowing contribution from the current UK ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson. Documents appear to show Lord Mandelson calling Epstein his “best pal” and writing of the friend “taking you by surprise… in one of his glorious homes he likes…

While new department cars rock up at houses today to pick up new ministers giddy to get into government, other Labour MPs will have their minds elsewhere as another big race for a big role in the Labour Party gets under way. After Angela Rayner’s sudden departure from the government for failing to pay enough…

Paralympian and House of Lords peer Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson has said she has been targeted with abusive emails for opposing the assisted dying bill. The crossbench peer said she had been accused of being “responsible for people dying in pain”. She is among those expected to speak in a historic debate on Friday as the…

The leader of Britain’s trade unions is to accuse Sir Keir Starmer of failing to deliver the change Labour promised during the election campaign last year. In his keynote speech at the TUC conference in Brighton, general secretary Paul Nowak will claim that for too many people change still feels like a slogan, not a…