By Owen Evans
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s communications director, Tim Allan, resigned on Feb. 9, a day after Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney stepped down over his role in appointing Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to Washington despite Mandelson’s ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“I have decided to stand down to allow a new No10 team to be built,” Allan said in a statement. “I wish the PM and his team every success.”
Allan served as an adviser to former Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1992 to 1998. In September 2025, he was appointed executive director of communications at Downing Street.
McSweeney, 48, a principal political strategist who played a key role in Labour’s 2024 general election, quit on Feb. 8.
McSweeney said in a statement that the decision to appoint Mandelson as the UK ambassador to Washington was wrong.
“He has damaged our party, our country, and trust in politics itself,” McSweeney said. “When asked, I advised the Prime Minister to make that appointment, and I take full responsibility for that advice.”
Mandelson, one of the chief architects of New Labour and an influential figure in UK politics for more than 40 years, was fired as UK ambassador to the United States in September 2025.
UK police on Feb. 6 confirmed officers were searching properties linked to the former ambassador in connection with alleged misconduct in public office, following the release of the latest Epstein documents by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The latest tranche of more than 3 million files released includes numerous email exchanges between Mandelson and Epstein, who was found dead aged 66 in his New York prison cell in 2019. Epstein was awaiting trial on multiple charges of sex trafficking girls and young women. His death was ruled a suicide.
“I can confirm that officers from the Met’s Central Specialist Crime team are in the process of carrying out search warrants at two addresses, one in the Wiltshire area, and another in the Camden area,” Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Hayley Sewart said in a statement.
“The searches are related to an ongoing investigation into misconduct in public office offences, involving a 72-year-old man.”
The Metropolitan Police said no arrest was made and enquiries are ongoing. The Epoch Times reached out to Mandelson for comment on Feb. 6 but did not receive a response.
Starmer on Feb. 5 apologized to Epstein’s victims for appointing Mandelson as UK ambassador to the United States when some details of his association with the late sex offender were already known.
Starmer, who is facing a barrage of criticism and calls to resign over his judgment, said at an event in Hastings that he was “sorry for having believed Mandelson’s lies.”
The prime minister said that “none of us knew the depth of the darkness” of Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein when he was selected for the role.
Starmer said he shared the “anger and frustration” of many of his Labour Party colleagues about the scandal, but vowed to continue as prime minister.
Starmer said Mandelson, 72, was asked directly about the nature of his relationship with Epstein, whether he had stayed with the registered sex offender after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, and whether he had accepted gifts from him.
At the time of Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador in December 2024, it had been reported in both U.S. and UK media that he had stayed at Epstein’s New York townhouse in 2009.
“The information now available makes clear that the answers he gave were lies,” Starmer said. “He portrayed Epstein as someone he barely knew. And when that became clear and it was not true, I sacked him. Such deceit is incompatible with public service.”
Reuters and Rachel Roberts contributed to this report.
