Tiny Fist Pump: Starmer 'Furious' Nobody Told Nobody About That Thing He Said He'd Been Told

...to nudge the voters across the United Kingdom into giving him a pass in three weeks.

Labour set to lose control in Wales for first time

Plaid Cymru to seize Senedd, with Starmer also facing a Reform rout across England, exclusive poll reveals

Labour is on course to lose control in Wales for the first time since devolution, an exclusive poll for The Telegraph reveals.

Plaid Cymru is set to emerge as the largest party in Wales, with Labour pushed into third place behind Reform UK.

Labour is also facing a Reform rout across England, with the near-total collapse of the Red Wall and the loss of stronghold councils held since the 1970s.

The findings – which will reignite speculation about how long Sir Keir Starmer can hold on at No 10 – come in the most comprehensive multilevel regression and post-stratification (MRP) poll of the May 7 elections to date.

Every new poll brings worse news for the milquetoast mediocrity. The May 7 elections are polling as a catastrophe, with Starmer's Labor Party only holding on to most of their London seats.

The rest of the UK, including Wales, looks to be a blowout.

...Labour could suffer worst night in local election history

Of the 136 English local authorities facing elections, Labour currently controls or is the coalition leader in 83.

The party could suffer its worst night in local election history – winning just 42 authorities – with almost half of that total in London.

...In contrast, Reform’s breakthrough will be undeniable.

At the highest end of predicted results, Nigel Farage’s party would gain control of up to 69 councils – half of the number voting this year – by gaining support from Labour voters in the Red Wall and Conservatives in the East of England.

Even on a more modest prediction, it would net 56 councils, compared with 42 for Labour, 17 for the Liberal Democrats and 15 for the Conservatives.

I can't imagine why anyone would want Labor and its miserable waffler gone. They've done so much to destroy the standard of living in the country since they took over and are hellbent on making it even worse. More little boats, more migrants in your little village or next to your children's school, more money to afford the car they don't want you to own, and more jail time for you if you complain.

What's not to love about Labour?

And now Starmer's gang of thieves has even made the move to take control of private pension funds, and direct how much they - the government - will invest and where, should it strike their fancy to do so.

Yeah. Really.

EVERYTHING YOU EVER EARNED ARE BELONG TO US

Labour wins vote to seize powers over private pension pots

Labour has forced through plans to take control of people’s pensions in a crucial House of Commons vote.

In a debate on the upcoming Pension Schemes Bill, MPs approved a so-called “reserve power” allowing ministers to order pension schemes to invest billions of retirement savings in private markets and other assets.

...Helen Whately, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said the move was “another attack on savers”, while Sir Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, said it would allow pension savings to be used as an “economic bailout” by Rachel Reeves.

Who couldn't love these Labour guys?

Unfortunately for Sir Keir, the bright and cringingly awkward photo-op moments he skillfully arranges somehow always coincide with a brutal exposure of another of his personal failings or his government's.

Starmer's teeny high with the tiny French presidential poof de crème collapsed as the Prime Minister, renowned for his transparent style of governance - everything from clandestine deals to pay handsomely to give away British sovereign territory or concealing the details of the not-quite-the-misunderstood-choirboy-as-portrayed slaughterer of little girls at a party - was caught out yet again in what seems to be 'a fib.'

Only this is a pretty big one. Like whopper-sized.

Back in February, Starmer was forced to dump one of his bestest buddies in the whole wide world, Lord Peter Mandelson, aka 'The Prince of Darkness.' From all accounts, Mandelson was a skeevey character from the beginning, but he was a longtime member of Starmer's inner circle and, as such, received certain considerations, privileges, and protection that perhaps he ...well. No, actually, he damned well shouldn't have.

This fact became blatantly obvious when the entirety of the Epstein files were dumped into the open, and none other than Lord Mandelson's dirty Epstein laundry and emails became common knowledge and a titillating scandal.

...Known as 'The Prince of Darkness,' Lord Peter Mandelson was an intimate of both Starmer's and, as we now know, Jeffrey Epstein's. There had been questions about the relationship between the two of them, especially with Mandelson's position high atop the Labour pyramid, but he denied any close contact.

Or so Starmer says now.

Starmer, however, had always acted a bit impulsively around Mandelson. Like when he reportedly appointed him as the UK's ambassador to the United States without anyone's by-your-leave.

Well, darn it, says Two Tier Keir now after the revelations. I messed up. I believed the scoundrel.

Mandelson was also Starmer's man in Washington for getting the Chagos deal safely past an unsuspecting Trump administration.

Starmer insisted he'd been hoodwinked by Mandelson's warm personal charms and that the security services had said the peer, who also stands accused of leaking state secrets to Epstein, had passed his vetting.

They'd just left out the 'close personal friend of Epstein' part.

Starmer blustered that it wasn't his fault nobody told him.

That was two months ago. 

Now Sir Keir is all in a furious kerfuffle because that's not at all what nobody told nobody.

🚨 NEW: No 10 sources say Keir Starmer is "absolutely furious" tonight

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) April 16, 2026

The new story is that the security services never told him Mandelson had failed his vetting.

Well, says Sir Keir. That's a not-my-fault of a different color!

Sir Keir Starmer has said he is “absolutely furious” he was not told that Lord Mandelson failed security vetting.

The prime minister, who is facing calls to resign over the scandal, said it was “staggering” that Foreign Office officials did not pass on concerns made by vetting officers. They had recommended that the disgraced peer should not be given the job but this was overruled by officials in the Foreign Office, who rubberstamped the appointment.

Starmer told broadcasters on Friday: “That I wasn’t told that Peter Mandelson had failed security vetting when he was appointed is staggering. That I wasn’t told that he had failed security vetting when I was telling parliament that due process had been followed is unforgivable. Not only was I not told, no minister was told, and I’m absolutely furious about that.”

🚨 BREAKING: Keir Starmer says he is "absolutely furious" at not being told Peter Mandelson failed security vetting pic.twitter.com/Lwv3TT0o2W

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) April 17, 2026

But, see, here's the problem with his verbiage. He was quite specific in defending his decision to appoint Mandelson back in February, specifically because he had been told.

🚨 REMINDER: Keir Starmer said in February that Peter Mandelson was cleared by security vetting - despite it having failed

"Security vetting, carried out independently by the security services, which is an intensive exercise, gave him clearance for the role" pic.twitter.com/jtTOCpIOCv

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) April 16, 2026

The Prime Minister's Questions session reinforced the impression that Starmer had seen the paperwork.

IMPORTANT: PMQs Wed 4 Feb

Starmer asked 'did the security vetting he received mention Mandelson's relationship with Epstein'

Starmer answers: 'yes it did'

So Starmer had seen the DV vetting

So how can he have been unaware that Mandelson had failed that DV?#receipts pic.twitter.com/47rd8cayZY

— Ross Kempsell (@RossKempsell) April 16, 2026

Man of action that he is, Starmer fired a guy in the Foreign Office, but that isn't doing it this time.

The calls for his head are coming from every quarter for misleading Parliament.

...No 10 figures will hope that Robbins’s departure will draw a line under the saga. However, Starmer will still be expected to appear in the Commons on Monday to explain how the vetting decision was overturned.

The revelations have set off a new crisis for Starmer, whose premiership almost collapsed over the Mandelson scandal in February.

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, called for Starmer to resign, while in private some Labour ministers said his position appeared untenable. “This is a tipping point,” said one. “There can be no more excuses; we’re past apologies and there cannot be another fall person. The PM must go.”

A senior government source said No 10’s defence sounded “fantastical” while another, who had been involved in the early organising of a potential attempt to topple Starmer during the last Mandelson crisis, said: “It’s back on.”

There's the beginnings of a general pile-on in the press, as well. Things that perhaps they'd held close to the vest are being rereleased as Starmer's position becomes ever more tenuous.

🚨 NEW: The Independent's Political Editor, David Maddox, has published messages showing No 10 was told last September that Peter Mandelson may have failed security vetting pic.twitter.com/oVqg1JO0ew

— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) April 17, 2026

IT'S STARTING TO LOOK LIKE SOMEBODY TOLD SOMEBODY

This was published in September of last year.

Serious concerns have been raised that newly sacked US ambassador Peter Mandelson did not clear security vetting for the role – but the prime minister pushed through his appointment anyway.

Sources have told The Independent that MI6 failed to clear the Labour peer largely because of concerns over his business links to China.

However, there were also worries that his past links to the disgraced financier and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein “would compromise him”.

The row has broken out as Sir Keir Starmer faces serious questions about his judgement from his political opponents, but also from Labour MPs after Lord Mandelson became the latest high-profile sacking by the prime minister over issues that should have been detected earlier.

When The Independent put the claims that Sir Keir had pushed through Lord Mandelson’s appointment despite not clearing MI6 vetting, a spokesperson said: “Vetting done by FCDO in normal way.”

David Mattox, who wrote the Independent story and published the texts, was communicating with the then director of communications at Downing Street throughout. He says the idea that they just found out about it is 'complete nonsense.'

At a @CommonsForeign session in November 2025, I directly asked Sir Oliver Robbins whether the FCDO had a different view of who should be recommended for the posting of US Ambassador. His response? "It was clear that the Prime Minister wanted to make this appointment himself." pic.twitter.com/xPqatRN4Xr

— Aphra Brandreth (@AphraBrandreth) April 17, 2026

Golly. How awkward.

This is all a bit of delicious schadenfreude for Starmer detractors who have put together a compilation of the Prime Minister's own 'he must resign' demands greatest hits.

“The Prime Minister lied.

It’s now in the national interest he goes.”

Keir Starmer’s words…not ours.

We’re only holding him to the standards he set himself. pic.twitter.com/ukzRSnY6bS

— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) April 17, 2026

The question is rapidly becoming, can Starmer even survive long enough to make it to the shellacking waiting for him and his party on May 7? 

Or is he already gone??

SQUEEEE!!!

The countdown started last night.

I wish someone had told me sooner.