British Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy and Housing Minister Steve Reid have publicly announced their support for Prime Minister Keir Starmer after Scottish Labour Party leader Anas Sarwar called for him to resign, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Pressure on British Prime Minister Starmer is intensifying after documents released by the US Department of Justice revealed Mandelson's close relationship with the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Anas Sarwar thus became the most senior Labour politician to oppose Starmer.
However, Lammy and Reid said that Starmer should remain in power. "We must not let anything distract us from our mission to change Britain and we support the Prime Minister in achieving this goal", David Lammy wrote on the social network "Ex".
Reid stressed, for his part, that Starmer had led the party to victory in the 2024 election, adding that "the party must stay on the same path".
Tim Allen, the communications director in the office of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, has resigned. He had been in the post for just five months, the Guardian reports.
His resignation comes a day after the prime minister's chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, resigned. Allen said he had decided to step down to give a chance to build a new team at 10 Downing Street.
Allen, a former deputy press secretary to Tony Blair, returned to Downing Street in September as part of the latest reshuffle in Starmer's team. He replaces James Lyons, who was director of strategic communications for a year.
The resignation is another blow to Starmer's position amid a fierce dispute over the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, despite his close relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
A Downing Street spokesman said Starmer had no intention of resigning and would focus on the work ahead.