LONDON — The Epstein files are threatening to bring down not the U.S. president who was once his buddy but a prime minister who never met the disgraced financier and sex trafficker.

U.K. Premier Keir Starmer’s future hangs in the balance after the release of 3.5 million pages of Epstein-related documents by the U.S. Justice Department.

Disclosures about Starmer’s former U.S. ambassador, Peter Mandelson, have been widely described as the worst scandal in British politics since Conservative John Profumo quit over an affair with a young woman with links to the Soviet Union back in the 1960s.

Britain’s higher standards of accountability for those in public office and its historically dim attitude to what the country calls “sleaze” have been the downfall of many a leader. Former Tory Premier John Major lost the 1997 election to Tony Blair after a series of scandals hitting his party, notably when MPs took cash in exchange for asking questions in Parliament.

Blair’s standing, meantime, took a terminal hit following the Iraq War. Boris Johnson resigned in 2022 after Covid rule breaches in Downing Street that became known as “party-gate.”

Threatening Starmer’s position are email exchanges in the documents that revealed the relationship between Epstein and Mandelson went far beyond what was previously known. Mandelson even appeared to have leaked market-sensitive information to Epstein when he was a cabinet minister in former Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government amid the global financial crisis.

In an interview with the Times of London last week, Mandelson expressed regret and a failure to recall specifics among the revelations: Epstein “was a classic sociopath. Outwardly, completely charming and engaging. He was very clever.”

Following an outcry in Westminster, Mandelson lost his place in the House of Lords and now faces a police investigation for alleged misconduct in public office. Starmer has come under intense criticism over his appointment of Mandelson as ambassador. His top aide Morgan McSweeney and communications chief Tim Allan have quit in the fallout.

Polling has suggested the public think Starmer should lose his job. He was already facing speculation that he could be replaced this year after 18 months in power in which he has lost the support of voters and many in his party who think he has not delivered on the “change” he promised at the 2024 election.

After even some of his own allies suggested on Sunday that it was 50-50 whether he’d last the week, Starmer won a reprieve when cabinet ministers and potential successors publicly backed him. That may only be a stay of execution as Starmer’s rivals bide their time and consider moving against him either following an upcoming parliamentary by-election later this month, or after local elections in May.

Further difficult days lie ahead, not least when the government publishes — as required by Parliament — internal communications between its ministers and officials and Mandelson, an event that could prove to be highly embarrassing.

For Starmer, a man who swept to power on a promise to clean up politics after years of turmoil under the Tories, the thought of being ousted in scandal will be acutely painful. He may need some of Trump’s brazenness to tough it out.

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