The Epstein scandal is discrediting the governing elite not just in Britain but much more widely, reports John Rees

Keir Starmer’s days as prime minister are numbered, at least as far as the British press are concerned. Headline after headline proclaims that the Labour leader, who won a landslide less than two years ago, has not got long in No. 10.

Starmer’s admission in the Commons on Wednesday that he knew of Peter Mandelson’s links with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein before he appointed him US ambassador was hugely damaging.

Starmer was attacked by his recently resigned deputy, Angela Rayner, in the opening salvo of a leadership bid.

MPs then voted to allow the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee to decide which documents relating to the appointment of Mandelson will be disclosed, overriding Starmer’s preference that No. 10 would make that decision.

In essence, MPs were saying that they did not trust the prime minister and his widely disliked advisor Morgan McSweeny to make that decision. If those documents show that Starmer ignored advice not to appoint Mandelson, then his prime ministership may well be at an end. 

A grovelling apology from Starmer the next day did little to end the speculation about his future.

But the fallout from the Mandelson affair is not the only danger the prime minister faces: poor results in either the Gorton and Denton by-election, due in three  weeks, or the council elections in May, would be equally dangerous.

And the stain of association with Epstein is still spreading. The removal vans arrived at the Royal Lodge in Windsor this week and began decanting the former prince, Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, from one manor house to another on royal estates.

In his latest royal bolt hole, many staff have refused to work for him. Royal Staff have had problems with Andrew before. In 2022, a former Buckingham Palace maid revealed that Andrew had 72 teddy bears which she had to spend an hour a day arranging in the right order on his bed. She told the Sun, ‘As soon as I got the job, I was told about the teddies and it was drilled into me how he wanted them. It was so peculiar.’

King Charles was heckled by a man in the village of Dedham on Thursday. The man shouted, ‘Charles, Charles, have you pressurised the police to start investigating Andrew?’ as the King was walking past a crowd of onlookers.

In Norway, Crown Princess Mette-Marit was criticised by the prime minister on Monday who said she had displayed poor judgement in having contacts with Epstein.

In France, pressure is mounting on former culture minister Jack Lang to resign as president of the Arab World Institute over his ties to Epstein, after he was summoned to the foreign ministry to discuss the matter.

In Slovakia, Prime Minister Robert Fico’s national security adviser has resigned after new files related to Epstein showed the pair had exchanged messages talking about women.

As the consequences of the Epstein files release reverberate through global politics, many ordinary citizens across the globe are left deeply sceptical of a governing elite that seems to have more in common with the rulers of ancient Rome in the last days of empire than they do with democracies in the twenty-first century.