Prime Minister Keir Starmer will deliver a high-stakes statement to MPs on Monday as he struggles to overcome fears inside his government that the Peter Mandelson vetting scandal could yet cost him his leadership. In what is set to be a dramatic showdown, Starmer will set out how Mandelson was able to take up his role as UK ambassador without the Foreign Office revealing it had overruled the decision to fail his vetting.
The scandal, first revealed by the Guardian last week, has already led to the sacking of the top civil servant at the Foreign Office, Olly Robbins, who is expected to appear before MPs on Tuesday in what could be another moment of grave peril for Starmer. Ministers spent the weekend trying to shore up Starmer’s position after opposition party leaders called for him to quit over the affair, arguing he would not have gone ahead with sending Mandelson to Washington had he known.
Senior government figures are concerned that this week could be make-or-break for the prime minister – despite him being bolstered by his handling of the Iran crisis – if more damaging information should emerge or if sceptical Labour MPs should finally lose faith. “We just don’t know how it will all play out, but all roads lead back to the original sin: Keir’s decision to appoint Peter Mandelson to Washington even though everybody knew it was high risk. This week could go either way,” one said.
Starmer said on Sunday he would make it “crystal clear” to MPs he had been in the dark over Mandelson’s vetting – and said it was “unforgivable” the Foreign Office failed to tell him after he had told MPs due process had been followed. Downing Street also sought to demolish the argument from Robbins’s allies that he was prevented by law from telling ministers that Mandelson had failed vetting, arguing that there was a difference between being involved in the decision and being informed about it.
Robbins, meanwhile, is understood to be taking legal advice after being sacked as head of the Foreign Office, and ahead of answering questions from the foreign affairs select committee on the scandal on Tuesday. The former top civil servant is understood to feel angry at what he believes to be his unfair treatment by the prime minister, and determined to put his side of the story, after his dismissal sent a chill through Whitehall.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy told the Guardian that voters wanted stability, not “a self-flagellating, internally focused” governing party. He dismissed speculation about a leadership contest after expected poor local election results for Labour on 7 May, saying: “In the middle of 2026, with a serious global crisis affecting prices and affordability, the idea of jettisoning one leader because of a bad set of local results, it is just pie in the sky.”
