Starmer Weathers Cabinet Revolt Scare Amid Epstein Row (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: A day of extreme jeopardy for Saqir Starmer over the scandal surrounding Peter Mandelson and his links with Jeffrey Epstein is ending tonight with his cabinet rallying around him and his backbench MPs applauding him after he appealed to them for support in an evening meeting in Westminster. During a frantic and rollercoaster day for Saqir, he faced the sudden resignation of his Director of Communications and a public call on him to stand down by Labour's leader in Scotland, Anas Sarwar. The fallout from the Epstein files has also prompted an unprecedented statement from Buckingham Palace in which the King makes clear his profound concern at allegations about his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and his involvement with the late paedophile and says they stand ready to support a police investigation if they're approached. More on that in a moment but first here's Chris Mason on a perilous day for the Prime Minister.

[00:00:54] Speaker 2: Tea time tonight and the question of the day.

[00:01:00] Speaker 3: If Saqir Starmer had ever wondered what a political near-death experience felt like, he doesn't have to wonder anymore. He was heading to address his MPs and peers in private in Parliament and was greeted very warmly. The Labour Party peered over the cliff edge of a leadership change today and has thought twice about it, for now at least.

[00:01:20] Speaker 4: Tonight's demonstration of strength, of course with friendly criticism, but demonstration of strength I hope will now allow Saqir Starmer to be able to pull his act together, to better get his team together and to be able to do what we came into government to achieve.

[00:01:36] Speaker 3: That's the truth isn't it, the government's teetered today hasn't it, it's teetered on the brink.

[00:01:40] Speaker 4: Oh there's no question whatsoever the last few days as Saqir Starmer said himself have been absolutely dreadful for all of us.

[00:01:46] Speaker 2: It's always difficult when we have a day like this Chris, there will always be ups and downs but the fundamental mission of this Labour government is not changed. Cutting the cost of living, cutting NHS waiting lists, making sure we're focused on changing the country like we came here to do so. We saw this evening a Prime Minister absolutely focused on doing that and we're all behind him.

[00:02:05] Speaker 3: Can we be absolutely clear tonight, this is it, you're joining a line in the sand, these days of chaos, these days of mess that have been gripping the government are done, are over, are finished.

[00:02:16] Speaker 5: Well I very much hope so because there was a real sense of unity tonight amongst Labour MPs in that room that we meet every week and the Prime Minister spoke to them and he talked about his determination and responsibility to the British people.

[00:02:34] Speaker 3: A lot of this, a reaction to this extraordinary moment in Glasgow just after lunchtime, the leader of Scottish Labour had called a last-minute news conference.

[00:02:43] Speaker 6: This isn't easy and it's not without pain as I have a genuine friendship with Keir Starmer but my first priority and my first loyalty is to my country Scotland and I am not willing to sacrifice Scotland's NHS, our schools, our communities, our towns, cities, villages and islands to a third decade of an SNP government. That's why the distraction needs to end and the leadership in Downing Street has to change.

[00:03:16] Speaker 3: News of this huge intervention soon reached Downing Street so was it time Keir Starmer resigned?

[00:03:22] Speaker 7: We've waited 14 years to get here.

[00:03:25] Speaker 3: With the jab of his finger the Prime Minister's deputy defended his boss and the rest of the cabinet and others soon followed suit with a stream of social media posts supporting him. There had been yet more chaos earlier. This man, the Prime Minister's Director of Communications, Tim Allen, packed it in after Sir Keir's Chief of Staff left yesterday. Mr Allen's WhatsApp picture making it very clear he was out of here.

[00:03:55] Speaker 8: Keir Starmer has lost control of his government. He is in office but not in power. He is completely at the mercy of Labour MPs who, let's be frank, have not been voting his way since the U-turn on the two-child benefit cap.

[00:04:12] Speaker 7: Labour elected to bring change to the country and to end the chaos we saw under the Conservatives but Keir Starmer, I'm afraid, has failed to deliver and we still have this daily soap opera and it's damaging the country, it's damaging our economy, it means things like the health service aren't improving the way they should.

[00:04:29] Speaker 9: I think that he should resign and I think that he will before very long resign. I think Anas Sarwar is a very big marker. I mean, how can Labour now fight the Scottish elections if Starmer stays as Prime Minister? It's virtually impossible, isn't it?

[00:04:44] Speaker 3: The day complete and what a day. Keir Starmer returning to Downing Street tonight, a political survivor for now but damaged.

[00:04:55] Speaker 1: Chris, it feels like Sir Keir has been saved from the brink but just how safe is he now?

[00:05:00] Speaker 3: Well, the Prime Minister's future in the job, Rita, looked bleak at breakfast time. It looked dire shortly after lunchtime with Anas Sarwar's intervention but that was then the pivot point of the whole day. Had others, significant figures within the party, followed the lead of Mr Sarwar, we could be in a very, very different place tonight. It could have fast-forwarded the Prime Minister's resignation even as soon as today. That did not happen. The opposite happened as we saw there, the stream of social media posts from the Cabinet, the supportive mood of the vast majority meeting the Prime Minister in Parliament tonight. That said, there is no doubt that the last week has been deeply damaging for Keir Starmer and he is the weaker for it. A couple of other strands to bring you up to date with tonight. We understand that in the next couple of days the Cabinet Secretary, the country's most senior civil servant, Chris Wormald, will announce that he is leaving the government. Perhaps that will be packaged up by the Prime Minister in the context of trying to revive their approach to government. And also an intriguing decision from Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary today. He has ambitions to become Prime Minister one day. He has decided unilaterally to publish his WhatsApp exchanges with Lord Mandelson to try and clear the decks to suggest that he has nothing to hide over his long-standing friendship with the peer. Now in those messages he is not exactly entirely complimentary about the government in which he serves. It is a reminder of his ambition, a reminder that there is every prospect we could still end up in some sort of leadership race at some point in the non-too-distant future. In other words, the consequences of this week and the story of this week is far from over.