Prime Minister Keir Starmer has expressed fury at Foreign Office officials who failed to inform him about Peter Mandelson's vetting failure, calling it 'beggars belief' that the information was withheld. In a heated Commons session, Starmer said he would have cancelled Mandelson's appointment as US ambassador had he known the full facts.
Starmer told MPs that officials granted Mandelson developed vetting clearance against the specific recommendation of UK Security Vetting. He added that the decision was not passed to him, the Foreign Secretary, the Deputy Prime Minister, or the former Cabinet Secretary.
The Prime Minister denied misleading Parliament and criticised the 'deliberate decision' to withhold the information. He said: 'It beggars belief that throughout the whole timeline of events officials in the Foreign Office saw fit to withhold this information from the most senior Ministers.'
Starmer defended his decision to sack Sir Olly Robbins, the former Foreign Office permanent secretary, after challenging him over the vetting decision. He said: 'I did ask him and I didn’t accept his explanation - that's why I sacked him.'
Former UN official Tom Fletcher described Sir Olly as 'heartbroken' over the saga, saying he had 'public service and integrity stitched into his DNA'. Starmer also repeated his apology to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein for appointing Mandelson.
