This week’s revelations about Peter Mandelson have shocked the entire country and exposed the Prime Minister’s appalling judgement in appointing a man who was best friends with a child rapist and sex trafficker. A small number of Labour MPs have had the courage to be honest with the public and condemn their own government, but why have our local Labour representatives remained silent?

The political revelations about the conduct of Peter Mandelson and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, one of the world’s most prolific paedophiles and child sex traffickers, are absolutely shocking. It is unbelievable that the Prime Minister and his aides considered Mandelson an appropriate appointment to lead diplomatic relations with the United States, despite official vetting documents highlighting the close nature of the relationship. Further documents released appear to show that at the height of the 2008-09 financial crash, Peter Mandelson, then de facto deputy prime minister to Gordon Brown, was leaking confidential information, betraying our country and trying to influence government policy to benefit his friend Epstein. This is undoubtedly the biggest political scandal in the past century.

I cannot understand how someone of Sir Keir Starmer’s experience thought this would be ok. And who were the colleagues and aides raising red flags warning of the dangers of this move? The Prime Minister will probably limp on until the May elections, not because it’s in the country’s best interests, but because potential successors will want him to own the inevitable defeat. The entire government machine is now focussed on political survival rather than governing.

While a small number of Labour MPs have spoken out about this, the silence of our local representatives is deafening. Most of our local MPs, MSs, council leaders, council cabinet members and councillors are Labour. Our local MP is the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister so is based in Number Ten. They were all very vocal when it emerged that some Conservative political advisers and senior civil servants had had gatherings in Downing Street during lockdown. But now their own party is embroiled in a far more serious scandal, silence.

I was the Leader of Monmouthshire County Council when the allegations of Partygate emerged. I couldn’t defend it and openly said so in the media and ultimately called on Boris Johnson to resign. Our Labour representatives need to be honest with the public and openly share our anger and disgust or they too are part of the problem.