Starmer insists he was never told Mandelson failed security vetting as pressure mounts (again)

LAST UPDATE | 8 hrs ago

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER Keir Starmer has survived more calls to step down as Labour leader and maintained that he was not informed that Peter Mandelson failed his vetting.

Details emerged last week that Mandelson did not pass the initial vetting process before his appointment as UK ambassador to Washington at the beginning of last year. 

Speaking in the House of Commons today Starmer told MPs it was “staggering” that he was not told Mandelson had failed vetting checks and acknowledged Parliament should have known about it “a long time ago”.

Back when the disgraced former Lord was appointed, security officials recommended that he should not be granted high level clearance, a decision which the Foreign Office overturned. 

Starmer maintained the afternoon that he was only informed of this on Tuesday last week just before the story was broken by The Guardian:  “This is information I should have had a long time ago, and it is information that the House should have had a long time ago.”

Subsequently, the Prime Minister effectively fired Foreign Office top civil servant Olly Robbins. 

Starmer said he took responsibility for Mandelson’s appointment this afternoon: “I take responsibility for that decision, and I apologise again to the victims of the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who were clearly failed by my decision.”

How did this come out?

Last Thursday, The Guardian revealed that the UK’s Foreign Office overturned the initial decision to bar Mandelson from the appointment after security officials conducted the in-depth background check.

By the time, the security officials had failed Mandelson, Starmer had already made his appointment to the position public. 

After these details emerged last week, the Foreign Office’s top civil servant, Olly Robbins, subsequently resigned.

What is Downing Street saying? 

The UK government has said that Starmer was not aware that the former Labour grandee was granted developed vetting against the advice of UK Security Vetting until last week.

This afternoon Starmer is set to face more questions in parliament over the Mandelson scandal with the Conservative opposition once again calling for his resignation.

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He’s facing allegations that he knowingly misled parliament after repeatedly telling MPs that ”full due process” was followed in Mandelson’s appointment.

What has Downing Street said? 

A statement issued by No 10 on Sunday night said that although civil servants rather than ministers make decisions on vetting and clearance, there was nothing in the law to prevent ministers being told.

“There is nothing in the guidance which prevented information being shared in this scenario, in a proportionate and necessary way and subject to the appropriate procedural steps,” the statement on the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act said.

Who’s calling for him to go? 

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has again called for Starmer’s resignation saying: “If the Prime Minister doesn’t know what’s happening in his own office, he shouldn’t be in charge of our country. He should go.”

The Green Party and Reform UK have also called for Starmer to resign.

Starmer also has critics within the Labour party who have questioned his leadership and who already fear an electoral bloodbath for the party in May’s contests in English councils and the Scottish and Welsh parliaments.

What’s the background again?

Mandelson was fired from his role as ambassador to Washington last September after further details emerged about his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019.

Starmer was aware Mandelson’s dealings with Epstein continued after the financier’s conviction for child sex offences.

Questions over his judgment intensified after the first batch of documents related to the decision published last month showed that he was warned before announcing Mandelson’s ambassadorship of a “general reputational risk” over his association with Epstein.

That warning stemmed from the first part of the checks, carried out by the Cabinet Office, which was based on information in the public domain at the time.

The second was the highly confidential background vetting by security officials, which followed the announcement but came before Mandelson took up his role in February 2025.

Starmer’s Irish-born chief of staff Morgan McSweeney stepped down from his role in February taking “full responsibility” for Mandelson’s appointment and calling for vetting processes to be “fundamentally overhauled”.

With additional reporting from PA.

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