An Entire Network of Impunity

Jeremy Corbyn writes:

Tony Benn warned me about Peter Mandelson back in 1987. Two years earlier, Labour leader Neil Kinnock had appointed him as the party’s director of communications. Tony and I would talk about Peter, and discuss our mutual distrust of a man who revelled in his nickname, “Prince of Darkness”. Tony would later write it up in his diary, having heard Mandelson speak in a meeting of the NEC and the shadow cabinet: “I find Mandelson a threatening figure for the future of the Party.”

Tony was right. It appeared to me that Mandelson’s purpose was to divert Labour from its basic mission to redistribute wealth and power. Mandelson was very clever. Equipped with an acute understanding of the mores and methods of the labour movement, Mandelson was able to exploit the image of his grandfather, Herbert Morrison, a municipalist who believed in public intervention – and who organised the election campaign that led to Labour’s postwar victory in 1945.

This has been a seminal week in politics. We have known about some of Jeffrey Epstein’s vile crimes for at least 18 years, but we are now beginning to see the unravelling of his labyrinthine net – and the ensnaring of members of the British elite, including Mandelson. Epstein was not convicted last week. He was not convicted last year. He was first convicted 18 years ago. Despite this, he managed not only to return to a gilded circle but grow that circle exponentially, with the promise of wealth, power, and impunity. Epstein’s status was self-fulfilling. The more connections he had, the more connections he could make. All of them were built on the enduring trauma of victims and survivors of abominable violence and abuse.

Epstein always used his power to ask for more. As far as I can tell, Mandelson used the same tactic – and brought people into his vision of a Labour Party that put the interests of business first. Schools and hospitals lumped with PFI debts are still, now, paying the price. I know corporate capture when I see it, which is just one of the reasons why, when I was Labour leader, Mandelson had no role, no influence, and no part to play whatsoever.

I cannot believe that when Keir Starmer appointed Mandelson as the ambassador to Washington, he would not have been made fully aware of his record in its entirety. Surely the prime minister would have known about the number of times that Mandelson was forced to resign because of his behaviour. Surely he would have known about his record as an EU commissioner. And surely he would have known about his well-recorded relationship with the convicted paedophile, Epstein. What a shameful, appalling appointment for the prime minister to make.

Many are viewing the scandal through the narrow lens of whether Starmer should stay or go. This misses the point: most of those who are lined up to replace him are likely to carry forward the abject political legacy he leaves behind. That includes the failure to redress the obscene levels of inequality in our society; the disgraceful attacks on the disabled; the disgusting anti-migrant hatred that is paving the path to Reform; and the ongoing military cooperation with Israel as it violates the sham ceasefire and continues its genocide against the Palestinian people.

Getting rid of Starmer means nothing unless we also get rid of his government’s healthcare and defence contracts with Palantir, the US company that provides military technology to Israel and AI-powered deportation targeting for Trump’s ICE units. That contract was secured by the lobbying group Global Counsel, co-founded and part-owned by Mandelson himself.

This scandal is bigger than Mandelson and his mendacious influence. It is bigger even than Epstein. It is about an entire network of impunity that has shielded itself from accountability. That’s why I called for an independent public inquiry. It cannot be run by the same political establishment that is ensnared in the gilded web it is tasked with investigating. Parliament needs to look itself in the mirror and ask itself how it has become embroiled in a ghastly web based on lies, corruption and patronage.

Democracy does not corrupt itself. Democracy is corrupted by those who do not want to play by its rules. It is no coincidence that the web that pursues wealth, status and power at all costs is the web that commits heinous crimes with impunity. This web dictates the rules of the game. That is how millions of people live in desperate poverty, while the rich and powerful commit heinous crimes with impunity. We live in a rotten political system that rewards dishonesty, abuse and greed. It is one big club – and you’re not in it. Real justice would be the creation of a real democracy – one that guarantees the safety, empowerment and dignity of us all.

The Mandelson scandal is shocking, but it is not a surprise. This is what happens when a government abandons its moral compass and replaces principle with patronage. This is what happens when you let mendacious people like Mandelson fill in the definition of your empty pragmatism. This is what happens when you don’t listen to Tony Benn.

And Imran Mulla writes:

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has accused Health Secretary Wes Streeting of a "shameful failure" for not resigning while privately condemning Israel's war crimes in Gaza.

The former Labour leader said that Streeting did not publicly admit that the Labour government of Keir Starmer "was complicit in war crimes".

In a letter sent on Thursday and seen by Middle East Eye, Corbyn, now a Your Party MP, requested Streeting's "cooperation in uncovering the British government’s complicity in genocide".

Corbyn's condemnation comes after Streeting released text message correspondence between himself and disgraced former British Ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson on Monday.

The messages were an apparent effort to dispel rumours about his friendship with the ex-peer, who resigned from the Labour Party last week over revelations about his long-standing friendship with the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Streeting, it emerged, privately told Mandelson in July 2025 that Israel was "committing war crimes before our eyes".

He said the Israeli government "talks the language of ethnic cleansing, and I have met with our own medics out there who describe the most chilling and distressing scenes of calculated brutality against women and children".

Corbyn pointed out in his letter that "once a government acknowledges that Israel is committing war crimes, then any continued military or political support is an admission from the government that it is knowingly aiding and abetting those war crimes".

He added: "It is now a matter of public record that you decided to serve in the cabinet of a government that was providing military, economic and diplomatic support to a state that was breaching international law."

'Rogue state behaviour'

Although diplomatic relations have been strained between Britain and Israel under Labour, with the UK introducing a partial arms embargo on the country, Starmer's government continued to collaborate militarily with the state throughout its genocide in Gaza.

In the text messages, Streeting – widely considered a leading contender to replace Starmer as prime minister if he resigns or is deposed – accused Israel of "rogue state behaviour" and said: "Let them pay the price as pariahs with sanctions applied to the state, not just a few ministers."

Corbyn asked Streeting: "If you believe Israel was committing war crimes, why did you not resign from a government that was continuing to provide military and economic support to Israel?"

He added: "Do you believe this government is complicit in war crimes?

"Would you be willing to cooperate with the ICC regarding any investigation into this government’s complicity in war crimes?"

Corbyn further asked: "Can you outline the specific steps you took to end this government’s military and political support for Israel?"

He said that "our history books will shame government ministers who could have stopped the genocide in Gaza, but chose to stay silent instead". In March 2025, just months before Streeting's private messages, Starmer rowed back on remarks made by then-Foreign Secretary David Lammy that Israel was committing a "breach of international law".

Streeting has not publicly urged sanctions on Israel or accused it of committing war crimes, although last September he said that Israeli President Isaac Herzog "needs to answer the allegations of war crimes, of ethnic cleansing and of genocide that are being levelled at the government of Israel".