The decision to make Peter Mandelson US ambassador was always fraught with risk, but we now know that he failed the security vetting required for the role – and senior civil servants failed to tell the Prime Minister.
As a result, Foreign Office chief Sir Olly Robbins was sacked last week, and will give evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee tomorrow. But before that, Keir Starmer will address the Commons to “set out all the relevant facts in true transparency so Parliament has the full picture”.
The scandal has renewed pressure on Starmer – and called into question his judgement for appointing Mandelson in the first place. So, will he have to resign? Our experts share their perspectives.
Kitty Donaldson: ‘There is more to this story’
Starmer will argue that Olly Robbins’ decision not to personally tell him about Peter Mandelson’s failed security vetting was an egregious mistake and sackable offence. “The fact that I wasn’t told when I said to Parliament that due process had been followed is unforgivable,” the Prime Minister told The Mirror.
No 10 argues that if Starmer was kept in the dark about Mandelson’s failed vetting until last Tuesday, then the PM’s innocence is proven. No evidence suggests otherwise.
So far so simple. But there’s more to this story. Robbins will argue the independent vetting process prohibited ministers from being told.
Starmer is in danger of looking like he blamed the original sin – No 10’s desire to have Mandelson in post at any cost – on a career civil servant. And that Robbins was sacrificed in the process. What’s more, it’s just another week dominated by headlines about Mandelson: something the PM could well do without.
Kitty Donaldson is The i Paper’s Chief Political Commentator
Hugo Gye: ‘There will be a leadership challenge at some point – but not now’
Last week, it looked like Sir Keir Starmer was in imminent danger. He insisted again and again that Peter Mandelson had been thoroughly vetted – and suddenly it emerged that was not true. Now he is out of trouble. It is clear that Starmer did not lie about the vetting; in fact, senior civil servants failed to mention that Mandelson had actually failed it.
The debate consuming Westminster now is effectively one about Whitehall’s HR processes. Important, sure, but not the sort of game-changing scandal that decides the fate of a Government. Labour MPs will not launch any sort of putsch against their leader two-and-a-half weeks before a round of local elections in which the party is already set to do very badly.
That is not to say that the Prime Minister can settle in for the long term. Starmer is dogged by the Mandelson scandal as a distillation of the poor judgement he has repeatedly shown in office, and there will surely be a leadership challenge at some point.
Whether that comes after a local election bloodbath, or – probably more likely – later down the line this year or next, the Prime Minister’s position looks precarious. But this week is not the time that he will lose his footing entirely.Hugo Gye is The i Paper’s Political Editor
Andrew Fisher: ‘No one wants a prime minister with poor judgement’
“There was then security vetting carried out independently by the security services, which is an intensive exercise that gave him clearance for the role.” That is what Keir Starmer told the media on 5 February this year.
We now know security vetting did not clear Peter Mandelson. So either Starmer was outright lying, making an assumption, or he had been misled.
The most benign interpretation is that the Prime Minister just assumed vetting was cleared, and had never checked despite months of scrutiny over the appointment and then sacking of Mandelson. That is at best negligent.
The statements from Starmer today and Robbins tomorrow may produce some details, but the cardinal misjudgement was appointing Mandelson in the first place. “It was clear the PM wanted to make the appointment himself,” Robbins told the Foreign Affairs Committee in November. Starmer wanted Mandelson despite the known business links with China and Russia, Mandelson’s links with Epstein, and his two previous resignations in disgrace. It was a misjudgement. And who wants a Prime Minister with poor judgement?
Andrew Fisher is the former executive director of policy for the Labour Party
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