Mandelson row reignites
Opposition demands answers as Mandelson vetting scandal pressurises PM
london
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer came under renewed pressure to resign on Friday despite sacking a senior official following news that Britain’s former ambassador to the United States had failed security vetting but was still handed the job.
Starmer, who won the largest majority in modern history for Labour at a national election in 2024, faces fresh questions both over his judgment and his ability to govern, just three weeks before his party is expected to be punished in local elections in England, and regional votes in Scotland and Wales.
Following the resignation of Labour veteran Peter Mandelson as US ambassador over his ties to the registered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Starmer had managed to win a brief reprieve from his critics after limiting Britain’s role in US President Donald Trump’s and Israel’s war in Iran.
However, on Thursday it emerged that Mandelson had failed the security vetting conducted before his appointment as envoy, a fact that Starmer’s team said the prime minister had been unaware of. Starmer’s political foes have accused him of misleading parliament and have demanded his resignation.
Senior minister says Starmer is furious
Senior minister Darren Jones said on Friday that Starmer was furious over not having been told about Mandelson’s failure to pass the security vetting.
“I don’t think it brings the prime minister’s future into question,” Jones told LBC radio, acknowledging that the system, which had meant Foreign Office officials failed to communicate the vetting failure to ministers, had “undermined the prime minister and the government”.
Downing Street moved swiftly late on Thursday to try to quash the scandal, sacking the Foreign Office’s top official, Olly Robbins.
Yet his team’s argument that Starmer did not know until this week key information surrounding an appointment he had promoted in 2024 as a stroke of genius has sparked doubts over how his operation works and whether the prime minister has a grip.
One Labour lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said while it was unlikely that the party would move against him now, the Mandelson saga was “a gift that keeps on giving” and would ensure that Starmer remained under scrutiny before an expected drubbing for the party in the local elections on May 7.
Another Labour lawmaker said David Lammy, Britain’s deputy prime minister, who had served as foreign secretary at the time of the vetting, should quit.
But George Foulkes, a Labour member of the House of Lords, Britain’s unelected upper chamber of parliament, urged caution, saying “mistakes have been made” but that it would be reckless to move against Starmer.
“The Mandelson thing is not the major issue affecting people today who are worried about so many other things,” he told Reuters. “We need to keep things in perspective when there are so many issues he has been dealing with well.”
