Prime Minister should resign over his handling of the crisis engulfing his premiership, says insurgent party’s chairman

Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s chairman, blasted Sir Keir Starmer on Question Time (Image: BBC)

Zia Yusuf has ripped into Sir Keir Starmer by branding him a “disgrace to his office”.

Reform UK’s head of policy called on the Prime Minister to resign over his botched handling of Lord Mandelson’s links to convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Appearing on the BBC’s Question Time, Mr Yusuf said: “Keir Starmer, in Parliament, admitted that he knew that Peter Mandelson continued his disgusting friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, even after Epstein had become a convicted paedophile.”

He added: “Keir Starmer chose to ignore the advice of security services and make this man Britain’s ambassador to the United States.

“The buck stops with the executive, Keir Starmer is a disgrace to his office and should resign”

Reform UK’s Zia Yusuf claims the Prime Minister “chose to ignore the advice” of security services when appointing Mandelson #bbcqt pic.twitter.com/zzcAyf2al7

— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) February 5, 2026

“Yes, for sure, Peter Mandelson almost certainly deserves to be in jail, but the buck stops with the executive. Keir Starmer is a disgrace to his office and should resign.”

The Prime Minister survived another bruising day of leadership speculation on Thursday evening after giving a speech apologising to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims for believing the peer’s “lies” about his relationship with the paedophile financier.

Many MPs have voiced a lack of confidence in the Prime Minister’s No 10 team and pointed to Downing Street chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, who they blame for his ally Lord Mandelson’s appointment last year as the UK’s ambassador to the US.

Presenter Fiona Bruce told the programme that “the BBC understands that Peter Mandelson’s position is that he has not acted in any way criminally and that he was not motivated by financial gain”.

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Emails released by the US Department of Justice appear to show Lord Mandelson forwarded potentially sensitive information to Epstein when he was business secretary under former prime minister Gordon Brown in 2009.

Detectives are set to interview Lord Mandelson and request access to his devices, as well as take witness statements from senior Labour Party figures, including Mr Brown and senior civil servants from around the time the emails were sent.