Peter Mandelson did not have national security vetting before Sir Keir Starmer appointed him the UK’s ambassador to Washington, the foreign secretary has admitted.
The shock revelation came as the prime minister was urged to apologise to the victims of the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and to “publish the Mandelson-Epstein files in full” as the government faced emergency questions on the ongoing scandal of Lord Mandelson’s links with the disgraced financier.
Sir Keir was forced to sack the Labour grandee last week after the publication of emails that showed he had sent supportive messages even as Epstein faced jail for sex offences.
Sir Keir and his team are now facing intense scrutiny over what they knew, and when, about the peer’s ties to Epstein, as well as questions about their judgement in appointing him to the coveted role.
As a three-hour emergency debate on the row got underway in the House of Commons, the foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, revealed that security vetting was only carried out after Lord Mandelson got the job.
In a letter to the chair of the powerful foreign affairs select committee, Dame Emily Thornberry, she said: “The propriety and ethics team in the Cabinet Office conducted a due diligence process prior to the announcement of Peter Mandelson’s appointment on 20 December 2024 at the request of No 10. The FCDO was not asked to contribute to that process and no issues were raised with the FCDO as a result of this process. This was not a security check.
“After Peter Mandelson’s appointment was announced, [the FCDO] started the ambassadorial appointment process, including national security vetting, in advance of him taking up his post.”
Asked if security concerns about Lord Mandelson’s appointment were dismissed during the process, Ms Cooper added: “We do not comment on individual national security vetting cases in line with long-established practice. It is not a process which involves No 10.”
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It came as the Commons heard that Sir Keir’s standing on the world stage has been “diminished” by the scandal.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch urged ministers to apologise to Epstein’s victims for Lord Mandelson’s appointment, adding: “The prime minister needs to come clean about what he knew and when he knew it, not send his junior ministers to cover for him.
“The prime minister needs to publish the Mandelson-Epstein files in full.”
Tory grandee Sir David Davis said Lord Mandelson’s links to Epstein had been “crystal clear” before Sir Keir went out to defend him at PMQs last week, and claimed that the security agencies knew that information about Lord Mandelson would have indicated “a clear possibility of kompromat”, meaning compromising information that could be used to blackmail, discredit or manipulate someone – a risk that the vetting process aims to identify.
“What precisely did the prime minister learn [from the emails that was] not already known about Lord Mandelson from public information and vetting done before?” the Tory MP asked.
During the debate, Labour MP Richard Burgon hit out at what he said was the “unfair” treatment of some MPs, including Diane Abbott and those who opposed cuts to disability benefits, who have had the Labour whip removed while Lord Mandelson remains a Labour peer in the House of Lords.
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As the debate took place, controversial tech billionaire Elon Musk intervened to suggest that the PM should resign.
He shared a post on X (formerly Twitter) that contained one of Sir Keir’s old tweets, in which he had told Boris Johnson: “The party is over ... Resign.” The post issued the same message to Sir Keir, and Mr Musk reposting it, adding the word “Yes”.
Foreign Office minister Stephen Doughty, who was sent out by the government to defend its position on the scandal, said Sir Keir had been “explicitly clear that the new information is and was not compatible with the duty that we owe the victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s horrendous crimes against women and girls”.
Allies of Lord Mandelson, who has now been forced to leave Labour governments three times, have been adamant that he admitted during his vetting interview for the role that he had continued the relationship with Epstein for many years.
His friendship with Epstein was known before his appointment, but reports by The Sun and Bloomberg showed that their relationship had continued after the financier’s crimes had emerged.
Emails published on Wednesday afternoon included passages in which Lord Mandelson told Epstein to “fight for early release” shortly before Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
He is also reported to have told Epstein “I think the world of you” the day before the disgraced financier began his sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008.
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