By Paul Hutcheon

Copyright dailyrecord

Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander has said Labour MPs are “despondent” after the chaotic firing of Lord Mandelson as the ambassador to the US. The MP said “action had to be taken” after the peer’s close links with disgraced paedophile Jeffrey Epstein were exposed . He also said he felt “revulsion” after reading the emails between Mandelson and Epstein . Prime Minister Keir Starmer is now facing calls from the SNP for Mandelson to be removed from the House of Lords. Starmer sacked the peer on Thursday over revelations about the close personal friendship between Epstein and the New Labour grandee. Leaked emails showed Mandelson expressing outrage at Epstein’s prison term for soliciting sex from a minor. He wrote: “I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened.” Another email revealed Mandelson referring to the American financier as his “best pal”. Alexander said of the Mandelson firing: “In retrospect, of course, if (it) had been known at the time what is known now, the appointment wouldn’t have been made.” He said Starmer had acted “on the basis of evidence” when dismissing Mandelson. He said: “New evidence emerged on Wednesday evening and the Prime Minister dismissed Peter Mandelson on Thursday morning. “I have worked in Downing Street in the past closely with prime ministers Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and others. Prime ministers are making a whole range of decisions each and every day. I actually want a prime minister who works on the basis of evidence. “When those emails emerged, that was materially new evidence in relation to the extent of the character and the nature of the relationship between Peter Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein. When that reached the Prime Minister’s desk, he acted and dismissed the ambassador.” Alexander admitted September had been a difficult month given the resignation of Angela Rayner’s as deputy prime minister and Mandelson’s firing: “Many of us were devastated by [deputy PM] Angela Rayner’s departure from the government last week. “She’s an extraordinary woman who’s overcome the most extraordinary challenges and we are grieving and feel quite acutely that sense of loss. “Now to have the dismissal of Peter Mandelson just the next week, I totally get it, of course Labour MPs will be despondent that in two weeks in a row we have seen significant resignations from public service. “These are not the headlines any of us in government or in Parliament would have chosen or wanted. “But the fact is when the evidence emerged, action had to be taken and we are looking forward, therefore, to moving on.” One Scottish Labour MP described the appointment of Mandelson to the ambassador role as “crazy”. The MP said Mandelson’s links to Epstein were well known and the fact he resigned from Tony Blair’s Government twice showed he was a “risk not worth taking”. SNP MP Brendan O’Hara said Mandelson, who entered the Lords in 2008, should be stripped of his peerage” “Keir Starmer may have finally bowed to the inevitable and sacked Peter Mandelson but it’s not much of a punishment if he flies back from Washington and puts his feet back up in the House of Lords. “The minimum the public expect is that Peter Mandelson is now stripped of his peerage and permanently removed from the public payroll. “The fact that the Labour Government still won’t confirm if Mandelson has been removed from the public payroll and are still refusing to rule out handing him another plum job shows just how out of touch they are.” He added: “If the Prime Minister is digging his heels in and won’t act, it is vital that parliament uses every available mechanism to apply maximum pressure to remove him from the House of Lords, and that’s exactly what this parliamentary motion is designed to do. “Removing Mandelson from the House of Lords is an important next step in this scandal but with every passing day more and more questions are mounting at Keir Starmer’s door – his judgement, his reputation and his authority are firmly on the line.” To sign up to the Daily R ecord Politics newsletter, click here