Lord Mandelson’s “singular talents” meant he was deemed “worth the risk” by Number 10 despite his known relationship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, a minister has said.
Business Secretary Peter Kyle said there was a two-stage vetting process for Mandelson before he took on the role of ambassador to the US.
Sir Keir Starmer is under mounting pressure from his own MPs to answer what he knew of Mandelson’s relationship with the disgraced financier amid fresh revelations that he was told months ago that the association posed potential diplomatic and reputation risks.
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Report ‘outlined Mandelson-Epstein risks before his appointment’ Mandelson’s talents meant he was ‘worth the risk’ Sort: Newest first Oldest first September 14, 2025 9:36 amVetting process ‘would discover details that have not been advertised’
A former UK ambassador to the US has said the vetting process takes “weeks and weeks” and includes interviews with sources.
Asked if you could keep things hidden from the process, Lord Kim Darroch told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “I think they certainly don’t just ask you to fill in a form, Trevor, saying, you know, what you want them to know and maybe concealing the things you didn’t want them to know.
“They ask people about you and they look into your background through sources you may not have nominated as people to act as your referees.
“So they do a thorough job… they take weeks and weeks, if not longer, over individuals – the process takes a fair amount of time, so you would expect them to know quite a lot and discover things that maybe weren’t advertised.”
He added: “On the other hand, you know, emails from closed or old email addresses that have been closed down – I’m not enough of a technical expert to know how you get to that kind of thing, so whether that would have been available to them I have no idea.”
They also interview the person being vetted, he said.
September 14, 2025 9:28 amReport ‘outlined Mandelson-Epstein risks before his appointment’
A confidential report outlining Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was given to Sir Keir Starmer before the Labour peer was appointed as US ambassador, according to reports.
The prime minister was said to have received the two-page document from the Cabinet Office Propriety and Ethics Team (PET) last December.
The contents would have left Starmer with no doubt about the risks posed by Mandelson’s association with the notorious sex offender, who died by suicide in 2019, Whitehall sources told The Times.
September 14, 2025 9:00 amMandelson’s talents meant he was ‘worth the risk’
Lord Mandelson’s “singular talents” meant he was deemed “worth the risk” to appoint after two vetting processes turned up information that was already public, Business Secretary Peter Kyle has said.
He told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News it was not correct that Lord Mandelson was appointed ambassador to the US before security checks were completed.
“The Cabinet Office did an independent inquiry into the appointment, as they do in every public appointment of this nature, and the information, that was presented to the Prime Minister.
“The second process was obviously a political process where there are political conversations done in No 10 about all the other aspects of an appointment of this nature.
“Now both of these things turned up information that was already public and a decision was made that based on Peter’s singular talents in this area, that the risk of appointing knowing what was already public was worth the risk.
“Now of course we have seen the emails which were not published at the time, were not public and not even known about, and that has changed the situation.”
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