Peter Mandelson quits Labour at last over Epstein links, leaving Keir Starmer boxed in over standards and accountability. Right, so Peter Mandelson has quit the Labour Party in disgrace, though that almost goes without saying with his history and Keir Starmer has lost the right to pretend his standards work into the bargain. He talked tough because it was easy. Then it stopped being easy and he did nothing. Mandelson was the test case and Starmer bottled it. He waited, hoped it would fade, and when Mandelson finally quit on his own, Starmer is left looking every inch the weakling and even more so given that just the day before he was suggesting the former Prince Andrew should testify before Congress. No comment on Mandelson though. So now everyone knows how this works. If you’re powerful enough, the rules slow down. If you wait long enough, the pressure passes. If you step aside quietly, the leadership won’t touch you. And because of that, when Starmer talks about standards, nobody hears principle anymore. They hear calculation. When he talks about accountability, they hear delay. When he talks about process, they hear cover. He didn’t lose authority because of Epstein. He lost it because, when it mattered, he showed he wouldn’t use it. What a mealy-mouthed hypocrite. Right, so Keir Starmer has gone on the record saying that anybody with information about Jeffrey Epstein should cooperate in whatever form they are asked, because you cannot be victim-centred if you are not prepared to do that. This of course has come out after a new tranche of Epstein documents was released by the US Department of Justice. From that moment on, Starmer stopped commenting on a case and started setting a rule. Starmer chose to make the test universal. He did not limit it to allegations of abuse, or to criminal defendants, or to people with no political connection to him. He did not say “where appropriate” or “subject to legal advice”. He said anybody. Once you say that, the question becomes who that rule applies to when it stops being cost-free. Peter Mandelson of course was already sitting in that space. His proximity to Epstein was not a rumour waiting to be discovered. It had been reported for years. His continued friendship with Epstein after his 2008 conviction was on record.