The Prime Minister suffers another blow

The Prime Minister suffers another self self delusion. He thinks that he is a great international statesman, and wrongly assumes that will make him more popular and help his party in the May elections. Instead it looks as if his over involvement in foreign affairs and the matters of the Foreign Office will do more to bring him down than anything else.

I have recently written about how his alleged great strength as a lawyer determined to govern under the strictures of international law has turned to dust and unpopularity. He was slowly being destroyed by his  failings to understand the limited powers of the ICJ, his wrong view on Chagos, by  the way the ECHR stopped his Smash the gangs policy and the boomerang that was his holier than  thou approach to government in opposition followed by the sleazy realities of some of his now ex Ministers and government deeds.

This has all been surpassed by jetting around the world giving cash and overseas territories away and above all by his gross mishandling of the US relationship. I was one of the few that advised not to sack the talented professional Ambassador he inherited in Washington who did a great job for him in the early months. I thought Lord Mandelson was a risky appointment because he had been forced out twice before from senior government roles over conduct issues. The links with Epstein were well known and the last thing the President wanted was a UK Ambassador that revived memories of that man every time he entered the Oval Office for talks. It has proved to be even more spectacularly stupid than I imagined.

There was the need for Mandelson to back pedal on his past unfortunate comments about Trump. There was the sacking when they discovered he had been closer to Epstein for longer than they thought. There was the need to accuse Mandelson of lying to explain how it was he got through the appointment process. There was the need to fire Starmer’s Chief of Staff, blaming him for recommending the appointment. There was the need to respond to Parliament’s demand to see the papers surrounding the appointment and Mandelson’s work as Ambassador, still not properly complied with. Now there is the latest biggest disaster that it emerges Mandelson failed the original security vetting by the Cabinet Office.

The PM has sacked the top official at the Foreign Office and claims the Foreign Office overrode the security warnings without telling any Minister or any senior staff at No 10. This is difficult to believe as the Foreign Office Head made clear to Parliament the appointment of Mandelson was a personal political appointment made by the PM. The PM failed to tell the Commons of this new news on Wednesday when he could have done so. By Monday afternoon when the PM gets round to making a statement there will be days of adverse press and media speculation. The PM has once again left his MPs and party workers to explain the mess whilst he flies to Paris to pretend to have influence over a war he is trying to  sit out despite the bombs and threats against our shipping and our bases.