Good morning, and welcome to my last regular First Edition – for the time being. From Monday, I am moving to a stint writing our sister US briefing, First Thing, and I will also be part of our World Cup coverage. Plus, of course, I will still be setting the questions on the Thursday news quiz, which celebrates its 250th edition next week.
Talking of questions, one that’s been occupying the nation for some time is this: does Keir Starmer regret ever hearing the name Peter Mandelson, let alone appointing him as ambassador to the US? Yesterday the Guardian exclusively published important new details about the concerns flagged by security officials when the disgraced peer and New Labour architect was granted security clearance against the advice of the government’s vetting agency.
Sources have told the Guardian that the recommendation that Mandelson be denied security clearance, overruled by senior civil servants apparently without Starmer’s knowledge, related in part to concerns over his association with four specific individuals – from China, Russia, Israel and the UK. The vetting also flagged concerns about a £1m loan received by Mandelson to invest in an Israeli start-up. Mandelson’s shares in the company were declared in the House of Lords register of interests, but the loan was not.
For today’s newsletter, I will take you through how we got here, what the new revelations tell us, and the questions that remain unanswered about whether the UK’s national security was compromised. Before that, the headlines.
Five big stories
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UK politics | Tony Blair’s criticism of the Labour party fails to engage with inequality and the “extremes of austerity”, senior party figures have said.
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Middle East | The US has carried out new strikes inside Iran, targeting a military facility and downing Iranian attack drones, US officials said, prompting an apparent Iranian retaliatory attack on an American airbase in Kuwait.
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Extreme heat | Water safety experts have warned about the dangers of outdoor swimming after a number of drownings in recent days as people try to escape soaring temperatures in the UK.
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World news | The head of the WHO has called for an immediate ceasefire in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo to help tackle the Ebola outbreak there.
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UK news | Resident doctors in England will next month stage the 16th strike in their long-running jobs and pay dispute.
In depth: ‘Mandelson appeared “naive” about how his relationships could be exploited’
You may remember Peter Mandelson from a long and colourful ministerial career. In 2024, he was appointed the UK’s ambassador to Washington – one of the UK’s most sensitive diplomatic postings – by Keir Starmer.
That posting ended in disgrace last year after US files exposed the depth of his links to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But a much wider picture has subsequently emerged. Last month, a Guardian investigation revealed Mandelson was granted security clearance despite the UK’s vetting agency (UKSV) recommending he be denied it. The Foreign Office permanent secretary when the decision was made was Olly Robbins. Robbins decided to grant Mandelson clearance – with, he has since said, mitigations to manage the risks.
When the story broke, Robbins was sacked. Starmer called the failure to brief ministers “unforgivable”. Since then, a parliamentary battle has raged over what was in those files and whether they should be released in full to the public.
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What are the new revelations?
Paul Lewis, Henry Dyer, and Pippa Crerar have doggedly continued to investigate. Yesterday’s exclusive revealed that the vetting agency’s 2025 summary file flagged concerns about Mandelson’s associations with senior figures in China, Russia, and Israel.
It wasn’t just those associations. According to sources, vetting officials flagged a £1m loan Mandelson received from a businessman to invest in startup Moon Active, an Israeli company behind a lucrative and widely popular mobile phone game, Coin Master. This was a loan that didn’t appear in the House of Lords register of interests. According to the Guardian’s sources, the agency separately noted that Mandelson appeared “naive” about how historical relationships with other individuals could be exploited.
National security vetting is not designed to identify wrongdoing, either by the subject or their associates. Nor does inclusion in a vetting document indicate misconduct. Instead, officials gather information that allows the government to assess risk.
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Who were the individuals identified in the vetting file?
One of those identified was China’s finance minister, Lan Fo’an. While it is unclear how they met, UKSV said the two men spoke several times a year. Mandelson received sensitive Foreign Office briefings on China in January 2025 while his vetting was ongoing – the same month Lan was meeting the chancellor, Rachel Reeves. Lan greeted Starmer on the runway in Beijing during his January 2026 visit.
Mandelson’s relationship with Oleg Deripaska, once known as “the king of aluminium” because of his vast holdings in the metal commodity and one of Russia’s wealthiest oligarchs, was also a concern. Mandelson’s links to him date back to the 2008 “yachtgate” scandal in Corfu which also featured former chancellor George Osborne; more recently, US Department of Justice files showed Mandelson sought Deripaska’s help in 2010 to secure a visa for Jeffrey Epstein. Deripaska is now sanctioned by the US, UK and EU.
A third, previously unknown associate of Mandelson’s is Tamir Hayman, the former head of Israel’s military intelligence directorate. Hayman, who oversaw a vast surveillance and cyberwarfare apparatus between 2018 and 2021, now runs an influential security thinktank in Tel Aviv, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). UKSV noted the pair spoke bimonthly.
An INSS spokesperson said Hayman had “no personal connection or familiarity whatsoever” with Mandelson. Before his appointment as ambassador, Mandelson had briefly taken part in an “external advisory framework” at the thinktank and “participated in several broad, multi-participant discussions”, they said, adding: “This limited interaction constitutes the entirety of any contact between them.”
It is not known whether Mandelson disclosed his associations with Lan, Deripaska and Hayman in a separate Foreign Office conflict of interest form. The document has yet to be made public.
The UKSV also noted that Mandelson had a very close relationship with a fourth individual, who is British, that could be compromising.
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Why is the Guardian publishing this?
The decision to publish was taken after weighing the significant public interest in the story.
In February, parliament used an arcane parliamentary procedure known as a humble address to try to compel the government to release all papers relating to Mandelson’s appointment. The motion charged the parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC) with assessing the most sensitive documents, and deciding whether any redactions on the grounds of national security or international relations were required before their release.
But it was only after the Guardian’s initial investigation that what one source called “a flood of materials” was released to the ISC. Since then, there have been growing concerns that the government is still withholding key materials.
Two weeks ago, the ISC went public with its concerns, saying the government was withholding vetting documents or applying redactions unrelated to national security or international relations.
Responding to the concerns in a parliamentary debate, chief secretary to the prime minister, Darren Jones, defended the government’s right to make its own redactions, but denied a cover-up.
One source said that the vetting summary, much of which the ISC believes should be released to the public, was due to be withheld by the government in its entirety. On Wednesday night, a government insider disputed that. A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office said it was “committed to complying with the humble address in full”.
The Foreign Office and representatives for Mandelson, Robbins, Lan and Deripaska have all been contacted for comment.
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What questions remain unanswered?
This explainer sets out key issues raised by the vetting summary – among them whether it was right to give Mandelson security clearance, whether national security was compromised during his seven months in post, why the loan was undeclared, and why Robbins said Mandelson’s case was “borderline”.
It also asks what the “mitigations” that Robbins told MPs had been put in place were – and whether there are any existing government documents that describe them. Now that concerns raised by the vetting file are public, parliament may seek a clearer understanding of how Robbins believed they had been dealt with.
What else we’ve been reading
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I loved this photo essay by María Magdalena Arréllaga of the murals in Rio de Janeiro that honour the city’s Black cultural heritage. Patrick
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I treated Alan Davies playing Jonathan Creek in the 90s as surrogate Earthbound Doctor Who while the latter was off air. Davies is very candid about the trauma in his life in this interview by Sam Wollaston. Martin
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Amelia Gentleman has a sobering must-read interview with child star turned OnlyFans creator Piper Rockelle. Patrick
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Nat Guest absolutely skewers – see what I did there? – what she calls “the worst variety of social event”, the great British garden barbecue. Martin
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Hackney’s first Green mayor Zoë Garbett has spoken with Matthew Taylor about her plans for the borough. Patrick
Sport
Football | Crystal Palace celebrate after beating Rayo Vallecano in the Uefa Conference League final, securing the club’s first European trophy in their history.
Tennis | Jakub Mensik said it was “insane” for players to compete in such hot conditions at Roland Garros, after collapsing on court due to cramps and being escorted back to the locker room in a wheelchair at the end of his five-set win.
Rugby union | Former England captain, Jo Yapp, has been named the head coach for the first women’s British & Irish Lions tour of New Zealand in 2027.
The front pages
“Mandelson vetting warned of ties to key figures in China and Russia”, is the Guardian’s front page today, while the Telegraph leads with “Mandelson told Cabinet how to do their jobs”.
The i Paper splashes “Call for welfare reforms to save young people from becoming ‘lost generation’” and the Mail says “Labour risking a ‘lost generation’ of jobless youth”. The FT runs with “Empty coffers at Trump’s Board of Peace leave Gaza rebuild in limbo”.
On energy prices, the Times says “Ministers raise heat on PM over North Sea”, the Express states “Time to scrap Ed’s net zero ‘fantasy’” and Metro goes with “Heating bills up? Britain’s gone balmy!”. Lastly, the Mirror’s headline is “Be safe in water … or more will die”.
Today in Focus
Human rights lawyer Francesca Albanese on life under US sanctions
The UN’s special rapporteur for Palestine, Francesca Albanese, talks about the impact of sanctions on her life, the situation in Gaza and the accusations of antisemitism she has faced over the last two years.
Cartoon of the day | Nicola Jennings
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Along the banks of the River Allen in north-east England there lies a “case of nature responding to the pollution caused by humans”, according to Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Geoff Dobbins, who is passionate about saving the rare habitat of Calaminarian grasslands – an ecosystem that thrives on the basis of soil contaminated by metals such as lead, which has been mined in the region for more than 1,000 years.
Specialist flora such as the spring sandwort and pennycress serve a purpose in cleaning the soil by turning the metals it contains into complex organic compounds. Several projects are looking into how to strike a balance between cleaning up the affected rivers, while keeping the country’s grasslands – which make about 30% of the total in Europe – blooming.
Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday
Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.
