LONDON — Keir Starmer faced continued anger Friday from his own MPs over the government’s handling of Peter Mandelson’s association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The British prime minister is facing fresh calls to drastically overhaul his top team after No.10 Downing Street promised to publish documents showing that Mandelson misled Starmer and his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney over his ties to Epstein before he was appointed British ambassador to Washington.

Westminster is now awaiting the first batch of non‑sensitive files about Mandelson’s appointment to the role. Some files on the veteran Labour politician are, however, likely to remain snagged in technical negotiations between the government, Cabinet secretary and Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), amid fears they could harm international relations.

In the meantime, Labour MPs — already disenchanted with Starmer’s leadership as he struggles in the polls — are publicly demanding an overhaul of the prime minister’s team.

“Something needs to give,” Labour MP for Southport Patrick Hurley told Times Radio Friday morning. “Something needs to change.”

Hurley decried the saga as a “distraction on steroids” from the government’s mission and said his own anger was “off the scale.”

Though Hurley backed the prime minister remaining in post, he suggested “some of the changes to the backroom staff might be a way” for the government to shift focus.

Stroud MP Simon Opher, who has previously criticized the government on welfare reform, told the BBC Starmer “needs to change his advisers in No. 10” and said the prime minister is being “really let down.”

“I know in politics we really rely on people to cover our backs, our advisers, and I think they patently haven’t done this with Peter Mandelson. So we need a bit of a clear out at No. 10,” he said.

“If my chief of staff had done this, I think he’d be looking for another job,” Opher added.

Labour MP Ian Byrne told Sky News the PM “needs a miracle” to survive — and should “reflect on his position.”

Starmer has expressed anger at Mandelson and accused him of concealing the extent of his friendship with Epstein. His government conceded Wednesday that documents about Mandelson which were prejudicial to national security or international relations could be scrutinized by parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, after a backlash from MPs concerned about a lack of transparency.

Mandelson faces a police investigation for alleged misconduct in public office after a further tranche of documents appeared to show that he passed confidential government discussions on to Epstein at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.

“It’s infuriating [and] all so avoidable,” one normally-loyal Labour MP from the 2024 intake said.

“I’m not in this job to play internal politics, I’m in this job to make a difference in the real world, but this is yet another massive setback when it comes to people having any faith in us doing that,” they added.