Keir Starmer blames ‘unforgivable’ Foreign Office for Mandelson vetting fiasco

{"text":[[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":9.44,"text":"Sir Keir Starmer has claimed that the Foreign Office’s handling of the Lord Peter Mandelson scandal was “unforgivable”, as he prepares for a humiliating statement on the affair to MPs on Monday."}],[{"start":21.48,"text":"Facing accusations by Kemi Badenoch, Conservative leader, of lying to save his job, Starmer on Friday refused to quit. He doubled down on his claim that he was the innocent victim of a deep-state cover-up."}],[{"start":34.92,"text":"“That I wasn’t told that Peter Mandelson had failed security vetting when he was appointed is staggering. [It] is unforgivable,” the prime minister said, as he struggled to explain why he appointed the Labour grandee despite security concerns."}],[{"start":49.12,"text":"Downing Street published an official memo showing the prime minister was first alerted on Tuesday to the fact that “the recommendation from the vetting officer had been that DV [developed vetting] should not be granted to Peter Mandelson”."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":62.82,"text":"Number 10 also published a template form for the vetting process, including two red boxes marked “high concern” and “clearance denied or withdrawn”. Government figures said that, in both cases, the red box was ticked."}],[{"start":76.6,"text":"But Starmer’s ill-fated decision in late 2024 to appoint Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the US continues to haunt him and the latest controversy has reinforced a view among some Labour MPs that he should be ousted from Number 10."}],[{"start":90.84,"text":"“My guess is it’s terminal,” said one Labour MP. Another said that Starmer should set out a timetable for his departure after what are expected to be disastrous election results for the party on May 7."}],[{"start":103.28,"text":"“If he decides to cling on regardless, burning through councillors and what remains of Labour’s political credibility, the Parliamentary Labour Party will face a starker choice than they’d like. At some point, loyalty becomes complicity.”"}],[{"start":117.02,"text":"Starmer made clear that he would come out fighting on Monday and would blame officials for not alerting him to Mandelson’s vetting failure, even if the ultimate decision to appoint the controversial peer lay with him."}],[{"start":127.8,"text":"“Not only was I not told, no minister was told, and I’m absolutely furious about that,” he said. “What I intend to do is go to parliament on Monday to set out all the relevant facts in true transparency.”"}],[{"start":141.76,"text":"Another two of the UK’s most senior civil servants are facing questions over why they knew about Mandelson’s failed security vetting several weeks ago but did not tell the prime minister."}],[{"start":151.64,"text":"Cat Little, permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, found out about the failed vetting in late March and told cabinet secretary Antonia Romeo."}],[{"start":160.32,"text":"She then embarked on “expedited checks” on the vetting summary document, which took weeks, to make legal and technical checks on whether the politically explosive information could be shared with Sir Keir Starmer, a spokesperson for the Cabinet Office confirmed."}],[{"start":174.76,"text":"The checks included considering whether sharing the information would prejudice criminal proceedings and liaising with the Foreign Office to understand why Mandelson had been cleared in spite of the initial recommendation not to grant it."}],[{"start":186.44,"text":"“As soon as these checks were conducted, the prime minister was informed,” the spokesperson said."}],[{"start":192.04,"text":"Badenoch said she did not believe Starmer’s account that he found out only on Tuesday that Mandelson had failed a security vetting check in January 2025."}],[{"start":200.6,"text":"“All roads lead to a resignation,” Badenoch said. “It doesn’t matter what story the PM is telling — at some point there is deliberate dishonesty.”"}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":210.04,"text":"Sir Olly Robbins, head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, was sacked on Thursday night after Starmer “lost confidence” in him, as the prime minister shifted the blame. Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s former chief of staff, has already quit over the Mandelson affair."}],[{"start":225.78,"text":"Starmer insisted that Robbins should have told him about the Mandelson vetting failure, but allies of the former Foreign Office head insisted that he could not tell ministers about the results of the check."}],[{"start":236.68,"text":"Ciaran Martin, former chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre, said it was Robbins’s role to decide whether to grant security clearance or not. “Not only is there no duty to disclose the details of a vetting case, there is a duty not to disclose them,” he told the BBC."}],[{"start":251.28,"text":"Starmer’s allies said that Robbins’s failure to pass on the vetting results had meant that the prime minister did not have the full facts at his disposal, leaving him exposed to claims he misled parliament. Downing Street said it had “repeatedly” sought the facts of the case, but was not told."}],[{"start":268,"text":"Badenoch said: “It’s preposterous that the prime minister, the former chief prosecutor of this country, didn’t ask basic questions or ask for the security vetting himself.”"}],[{"start":278.56,"text":"Kevan Jones, Lord Beamish, chair of the cross-party intelligence and security committee, said he hoped to put as much of the relevant vetting information in the public domain as possible."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

How the Mandelson vetting debacle unfolded

1. December 20 2024

   Sir Keir Starmer chooses Lord Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the US, to replace Dame Karen Pierce

2. January 8 2025

   Sir Olly Robbins returns to the civil service as permanent secretary at the Foreign Office (FCDO) with a mission to ‘rewire’ the department

3. January 28 2025

   Cabinet Office officials at the UK Security Vetting unit advise against Mandelson’s appointment

4. February 2025

   The FCDO gives clearance to Mandelson and he takes up the post of Washington ambassador on February 10

5. September 9 2025

   Documents released in Washington include a birthday book for Jeffrey Epstein in which Mandelson called the sex offender ‘my best pal’. Mandelson is sacked two days later

6. September 15 2025

   Starmer claims Mandelson went through a ‘proper’ vetting process

7. September 16 2025

   Yvette Cooper, foreign secretary, and Robbins claim Mandelson’s vetting was ‘to the usual standard’ while admitting that a ‘priority clearance process for a swifter decision was requested by FCDO’

8. February 5 2026

   Starmer says at a press event that ‘there was . . . security vetting carried out by the security services, which is an intensive exercise that gave him clearance for the role’

9. April 16 2026

   The government publicly admits that the Security Vetting unit recommended against Mandelson receiving clearance, but says no minister had been made aware of the decision. Robbins is sacked from the FCDO

"}],[{"start":289.5,"text":"Additional reporting by Emily Herbert"}],[{"start":297.64,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1776480147_2617.mp3"}