Mandelson row reignites
\nOpposition demands answers as Mandelson vetting scandal pressurises PM
\n london
\nBritish Prime Minister Keir Starmer came under renewed pressure to resign on Friday despite sacking a senior official following news that Britain\u2019s former ambassador to the United States had failed security vetting but was still handed the job.
\nStarmer, 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.
\nFollowing 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\u2019s role in US President Donald Trump\u2019s and Israel\u2019s war in Iran.
\nHowever, on Thursday it emerged that Mandelson had failed the security vetting conducted before his appointment as envoy, a fact that Starmer\u2019s team said the prime minister had been unaware of. Starmer\u2019s political foes have accused him of misleading parliament and have demanded his resignation.<\/p>\n
Senior minister says Starmer is furious
\nSenior minister Darren Jones said on Friday that Starmer was furious over not having been told about Mandelson\u2019s failure to pass the security vetting.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t think it brings the prime minister\u2019s future into question,\u201d Jones told LBC radio, acknowledging that the system, which had meant Foreign Office officials failed to communicate the vetting failure to ministers, had \u201cundermined the prime minister and the government\u201d.
\nDowning Street moved swiftly late on Thursday to try to quash the scandal, sacking the Foreign Office\u2019s top official, Olly Robbins.
\nYet his team\u2019s 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.
\nOne Labour lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity, said while it was unlikely that the party would move against him now, the Mandelson saga was \u201ca gift that keeps on giving\u201d and would ensure that Starmer remained under scrutiny before an expected drubbing for the party in the local elections on May 7.
\nAnother Labour lawmaker said David Lammy, Britain\u2019s deputy prime minister, who had served as foreign secretary at the time of the vetting, should quit.
\nBut George Foulkes, a Labour member of the House of Lords, Britain\u2019s unelected upper chamber of parliament, urged caution, saying \u201cmistakes have been made\u201d but that it would be reckless to move against Starmer.
\n\u201cThe Mandelson thing is not the major issue affecting people today who are worried about so many other things,\u201d he told Reuters. \u201cWe need to keep things in perspective when there are so many issues he has been dealing with well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\u2019s former ambassador to the United States had failed security vetting but was still handed the job. Starmer, who won the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-542400","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n