Peter Mandelson’s security vetting as US ambassador was fast-tracked despite his known links to Jeffrey Epstein, The i Paper can reveal.
Photos of Mandelson show he had security clearance to view “top secret” material within three and a half weeks of his role being announced, when such checks typically take several months.
Insiders say the Foreign Office was asked to complete the former Labour peer’s security screening as quickly as possible to get him in post, under pressure from No 10 officials.
The photographs and insider reports raise new questions about how quickly officials vetted Mandelson and whether they could have discovered his close connections to the convicted sex offender earlier.
A senior Government source said that Mandelson’s vetting was done through the normal process but without the usual waiting period, because the most important roles are fast-tracked through the vetting system.
A Government spokesman said: “No part of the vetting process was removed, or skipped in the case of Peter Mandelson. It is normal practice for vetting sponsors to expedite applications, and they can request that cases are prioritised based on operational deployment deadlines.”
This is the first admission by the UK Government that Mandelson’s security vetting was fast-tracked, despite the publicly known concerns over his links to Jeffrey Epstein.
Three UK intelligence sources claimed a “full and proper” check would have the means to identify payments from Epstein to Mandelson.
The vetting process was rushed due to ‘pressure…from No 10’, according to a Foreign Office source (Photo: Mark Kerrison/Getty)The latest tranche of the Epstein files suggested the financier paid $75,000 (£55,000) into accounts connected to Mandelson in 2003 and 2004. Mandelson claims he has no record of such payments.
The Government said that any suggestion part of the vetting process was missed were “false”.
Sir Keir Starmer announced Mandelson’s appointment on 20 December, 2024, and he took up the position on 10 February, 2025. In September, he was fired after the depth of his relationship with Epstein was revealed in a document release by the US Congress.
The i Paper asked security experts to analyse images of Mandelson arriving in Downing Street in January last year.
The photos show him wearing a lanyard marked with a green stripe, that indicate he had “developed vetting” (DV) status to access highly classified material, necessary to his new role.
‘Get him in post and get it over the line’
Separately, a Foreign Office insider told The i Paper that Downing Street “felt that they needed [Mandelson] in the role” and told the department to “do the process” and “get him in post and get it over the line”.
“It was mid to late October when the actual decision [to appoint] had been made,” a No 10 source said. “So, there was ongoing vetting – such as it was – thereafter.”
In late December 2024 the Foreign Office started the ambassadorial appointment process, including national security vetting.
“We went through the process. But even with us going through the process there was a genuine ‘can you get on with it?’ because they wanted him in post, because it had taken so long to decide that that’s the way it was going to go. The pressure was coming from No 10,” the Foreign Office source added.
Mandelson ‘parachuted in’
Another security official within the Foreign Office said Mandelson was “parachuted in”.
A Cabinet Office source said that “you wouldn’t expect” him to have been cleared so quickly because of previously published information about his links to Epstein.
“Then there are the follow-up questions. And usually, a candidate is expected to provide five referees. All of this takes time,” they said. “For someone with such a rich history that it was so quick is interesting in itself.”
Mandelson leaving Downing Street with No 10’s then chief of staff and his political protege, Morgan McSweeney, while wearing his DV pass in summer 2025 (Photo: Tayfun Salci)Four sources involved in security vetting for the government, who examined the photos of Mandelson in Downing Street in January, said the green stripe on his pass showed he had secured DV status.
The DV process, designed to delve into the personal and professional habits of a candidate to identify anything which could be weaponised by a hostile foreign adversary to blackmail or coerce the individual into sharing the top secret information they will have access to, usually takes six months or more, according to the Institute for Government think-tank.
It involves forensic background checks and an interview with a vetting officer to probe into every aspect of a candidate’s life, from foreign travel, relationship difficulties, problems gambling, alongside drug-taking and even pornography habits.
DV is carried out by a Cabinet Office body called United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV), which sends its findings to the Whitehall department sponsoring the checks, which in Mandelson’s case is believed to be the Foreign Office. The security director of that department then makes a vetting decision based on the UKSV report and recommendation.
Political appointees and No 10 officials are usually granted DV passes after vetting processes, although sometimes senior staffers are allowed access to confidential meetings while their vetting is under way, according to a No 10 source.
Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser, was photographed wearing a “yellow” pass with a lower level of security clearance until at least seven months after his appointment to No 10. He was later seen with a “green” pass which indicated he had passed vetting to view highly classified material.
Political pressure on screening process
Nine government officials and security sources with direct knowledge of vetting said the timeline laid out by The i Paper suggested Mandelson’s security clearance was expedited.
Two former vetting officers within the Cabinet Office said that a three-week turnaround for a DV pass was “speedy” but not unheard of for high-level prime ministerial appointments.
Wait times for interviews and background checks can be expedited if “the subject and the system want them to be”, one of the former officers said.
“It is definitely the case that political pressure, implicit or explicit, can be put on the process and those involved are only human and vulnerable to it,” one told The i Paper. “You would have to be a courageous official to tell No 10 there were complications with the vetting unless it was really black and white.”
Mandelson vetted after role was confirmed
A Foreign Office source cautioned that the DV process can be “a complete red herring” because it revolves around a candidate “answering questions truthfully”.
Peter Mandelson, left, is said to have hidden the extent of his relationship with convicted paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, right (Photo: US Department of Justice/PA)Following Starmer’s claim that his ex-ambassador lied about the extent of his relationship with Epstein during vetting, the Government faced calls to review how they conduct security screenings.
Before Mandelson’s appointment, he underwent an open source “due diligence” check by the Cabinet Office’s internal Proprietary and Ethics Team (PET). Starmer’s then-chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, followed up via email to ask three further questions about Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein.
McSweeney, Mandelson’s political protege, was widely seen as pushing for his mentor’s appointment to Washington. McSweeney quit as Starmer’s chief of staff earlier this month.
The Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, Darren Jones, announced reforms to the vetting system earlier this month. He also appeared to confirm that Mandelson was announced as ambassador before he was fully vetted.
Jones said the process for “direct ministerial appointments”, including politically appointed diplomatic roles which require access to classified material, will now require the selected candidate to pass national security vetting “before such appointments are announced or confirmed”.
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The Metropolitan Police has asked the Government to withhold publishing key documents outlining the vetting procedure Mandelson faced while it investigates allegations of misconduct in public office from when he held a ministerial role in Gordon Brown’s government in the 2000s.
Julian Fisher, a former British intelligence official, said “it is not credible” for the government to blame the vetting process for Starmer’s failure of judgement when it came to appointing Mandelson.
“Left to their own devices and given adequate time, I have no doubt that professional vetting officers would have got to the bottom of Mandelson’s dubious connections and financial dealings,” Fisher said. “It is what they do. And they are not easily hoodwinked by the subjects of their investigations. Indeed, I would expect them already to know the answers to most questions they put to subjects during in-person interviews.”
Mandelson did not respond to a request for comment.
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