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# Starmer's Scandals Pile Up
- URL: https://www.craftpolitics.fm/episodes/starmers-scandals-pile-up/
- Published: 2025-09-16T18:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-07T21:30:33.000Z
- Author: Joseph Lavoie
- Tags: Holly Mumby-Croft, #scan, #episode, #ai-5

This week on *Craft Politics*, we kick off our latest **Issue Scan** with a Prime Minister in crisis, a Conservative Party in retreat, and a Canadian housing announcement that somehow manages to add more bureaucracy to solve… bureaucracy.

Plus, our favourite comms segment—**Lipstick on a Gerbil**—features an impossible task: defending Peter Mandelson.

With Percy mostly frozen on screen (literally), Joseph and Holly carry the show. Here’s what’s inside:

###   **UK: Mandelson, Epstein, and the Labour Meltdown**

- Peter Mandelson is sacked as UK ambassador to the US after emails surface linking him to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
- Starmer’s judgment under fire—did he know more than he admitted during PMQs?
- Backbench muttering begins. Is May 2026 the unofficial deadline for a leadership change?
- Labour infighting, ministerial fatigue, and growing pressure from Andy Burnham

> “If this is what grown-ups in the room looks like, maybe the kids had a point.”

### **🔁 Meanwhile, the Conservatives lose… to Reform**

- MP Danny Kruger defects to Reform UK, declaring: *“The Conservative Party is dead.”*
- Holly isn’t so sure: is this the start of a cascade, or just posturing between conferences?

> “Politics is long. Reform may be rising—but the Tories aren’t buried just yet.”

### **US: The Shooting of Charlie Kirk**

- A high-profile act of political violence rocks the U.S.—and spreads globally
- The power (and danger) of social media virality in shaping public fear
- What it means for public office, political recruitment, and the future of civil discourse

> “Every time we lose someone to political violence, we lose future leaders who say, ‘I’m out.’”

### **Canada: The PM’s Housing Blitz**

- Mark Carney launches *Build Canada Homes*, a new federal agency with a $13B mandate
- Goal: 4,000 factory-built homes across 6 sites, using federal land and Canadian materials
- But is launching a new bureaucracy really the best way to fight bureaucracy?

> “Only in Canada do we fast-track housing by launching a new federal agency.”

### **Lipstick on a Gerbil: The Matt Tapp Clip**

- Labour Minister Matt Tapp sent out to defend Peter Mandelson’s appointment… hours before the sacking
- Did he even try to apply lipstick? Or did he wisely avoid putting his fingerprints on the mess?

> Holly: “No lipstick. He did what he had to do—but the pig was fully visible.”  
>  
> Joseph: “If career survival was the goal, he played it right.”

00:00 Welcome and Starmer's latest crisis  
00:30 The Peter Mandelson scandal explodes  
01:58 Why Mandelson matters and the judgment question  
05:03 Can Starmer survive until May?  
05:57 The domino effect and why timing destroyed the calculation  
08:37 Where's the rabbit out of the hat?  
11:47 Danny Kruger defects to Reform  
14:20 Is the Conservative Party actually over?  
16:55 The shooting of Charlie Kirk and political violence  
20:26 Death threats, panic buttons, and the cost of public service  
21:40 Technology, polarization, and the violence to come  
23:30 Mark Carney's Build Canada Homes announcement  
27:30 Housing as a cross-generational winning issue  
29:48 Lipstick on a Gerbil: Mike Tapp defends the indefensible  
35:23 Wrap and final thoughts