'Our priority is changing lives, not leaders' - Birmingham City Council leader backs Keir Starmer amid backlash over Peter Mandelson appointment as US Ambassador despite links to Jeffrey Epstein

Today has seen a stream of government cabinet member come out in support of Starmer after Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar called on the PM to resign.

It follows Morgan McSweeney quitting as the Prime Minister’s chief of staff after taking “full responsibility” for advising Starmer to appoint Peter Mandelson as US ambassador.

Councillor John Cotton, the leader of Birmingham City Council, has now joined the Labour figures showing support for Starmer, saying the party’s priority is to ‘change lives, not leaders’.

“Labour was elected to change Britain,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“Under Keir Starmer’s leadership wages are up, waiting lists are down and councils are finally getting the backing they need to repair the damage of Tory austerity.

“Unlike the last Tory regime, our priority is changing lives, not leaders.”

The Labour-run council in Birmingham is just under three months’ away from an all-out election and recently announced that it is longer ‘bankrupt’.

Birmingham-specific issues contributed to the council’s financial crisis, including the equal pay debacle and the disastrous implementation of an IT system.

Labour councillors have also pointed the finger at funding cuts during the previous Conservative government.

Since it declared itself effectively bankrupt back in September 2023, the city council has approved unprecedented cuts to local services, hiked council tax and disposed of more than £250 million worth of ‘assets’.

But the huge £300 million budget gap has reportedly being closed due to such actions.

In a statement issued last week, Councillor Cotton said the council would now step up its work with Labour West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker and the Labour government “to invest in our communities, delivering the homes, jobs and services that the people of this city deserve”.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service last week about the council’s financial position, Councillor Cotton said: “There’s absolutely no complacency and we’ve still got an improvement journey to complete.

“What I will say is that this council is a very different organisation to the one I took over leadership of three years ago.”

Robert Alden, Tory councillor and leader of the opposition, slammed the council’s political leadership however, saying: “Three years ago, the Labour administration effectively bankrupted the council.

“Council tax has rocketed, while services have been slashed.”

Liberal Democrats group leader Roger Harmer added: “It is beyond shocking to hear that Labour, the party responsible for bankrupting our city, is now patting itself on the back and claiming to have fixed the issue.

“Birmingham’s council bosses should hang their heads in shame after the pain they’ve caused local people here.”