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More than half of Britons want Keir Starmer to quit after the Prime Minister's disastrous handling of the Peter Mandelson scandal. Almost two in five Labour voters at the 2024 General Election want Sir Keir to be replaced, as fury grows in his own party.

The Prime minister faced another day of pressure from his own MPs over his handling of the peer's appointment as Britain's ambassador to the US, with some floating the idea of replacing him after casting doubt on his judgement.

Sir Keir said on Thursday that he would "go on" as Prime Minister and that he shared the "anger and frustration" that voters felt about Lord Mandelson.

A new poll by YouGov revealed that 37% of Labour voters want Sir Keir to step down, while 40% want him to stay on.

Just one in four remain supportive of the embattled Prime Minister.

More than 80% of Reform supporters want Sir Keir to leave Downing Street, while 66% of Conservatives believe the Prime Minister should quit.

Leadership speculation intensified on Thursday as the Prime Minister gave a speech apologising to Jeffrey Epstein's victims for believing the peer's "lies" about his relationship with the paedophile financier.

Days of disclosures from the Epstein files about Lord Mandelson's connections to the late financier and paedophile have included evidence that he sent sensitive government information to Epstein when he was Gordon Brown's business secretary.

Backbenchers have called for either his chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, to be sacked or for Sir Keir himself to step down after bombshell revelations about Lord Mandelson's dealings with the child sex offender.

In a speech on Thursday, the Prime Minister insisted that "none of us knew the depth of the darkness" of the peer's relationship with Epstein when he was appointed ambassador to the US last year.

Police are investigating allegations the peer, who has stepped down from the Lords, passed on market-sensitive information to Epstein when he was business secretary following the 2008 financial crisis.

Other documents released by the US Department of Justice also laid bare the apparent extent of the pair's relationship, with messages appearing to show Lord Mandelson celebrating the paedophile's release from jail as "Liberation day".

And Sir Keir was dealt a fresh blow when Labour grandee Harriet Harman said the Prime Minister's apology looked "weak and naive and gullible".

"He should be reflecting on why he made that appointment," she told Sky News' Electoral Dysfunction podcast.

"He should also be thinking about a real reset in No 10, because what you need from your team in No 10 is people who share your values and your principles and who will help you be the best prime minister you can be according to your true self.

"And clearly that is not what happened because the Keir Starmer who was DPP (director of public prosecutions), would never have appointed somebody like Peter Mandelson to represent the country."

One minister told The Telegraph: "Things are existential. Something needs to change, and Morgan going is the bare minimum."

They added that "there are people urging a leadership challenge", including MPs and ministers who now numbered "too many to name".

There was also anger about Downing Street's attempt to control the release of potentially explosive documents providing insight into how the decision was made.

The Government backed down and ceded control to Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) to decide what could be released into the public domain in the face of a Labour mutiny on Wednesday.

The release could be delayed because the Metropolitan Police has asked the Government not to publish documents that would "undermine" its probe.

The ISC said it could not provide a timetable for releasing the documents as it reviews whether some of the papers should be withheld for national security reasons.

No 10 has "begun discussions with the ISC about the process for releasing these documents" and will update Parliament once it has been agreed, Sir Keir's spokesman said.