Judgement day for Starmer over Mandelson vetting scandal

Sir Keir Starmer is facing the toughest 48 hours of his premiership as he fights to save his job amid growing anger over Peter Mandelson’s botched security clearance.

The prime minister, whose reputation is at stake, will try to convince the House of Commons on Monday that he was unaware that the UK Security Review (UKSV) had recommended that Mandelson should be refused permission to become the UK’s ambassador to the US.

After a battering from MPs is expected, Sir Keir will come under further scrutiny on Tuesday when Sir Olly Robbins, who was sacked as Foreign Office permanent secretary last week for going ahead with Mandelson’s appointment despite investigation concerns, appears before a powerful group of MPs to explain his department’s role in the saga.

The former civil servant’s allies believe he could undermine the prime minister’s version of events.

They claim Sir Olly was furious at his dismissal and is understood to have sought legal advice. Former Foreign Office permanent secretary Lord Simon McDonald and former deputy cabinet secretary Helen MacNamara claimed he was “thrown under the bus” to save the prime minister, while senior former civil servants also backed the ousted mandarin.

On Friday night, No 10 published information about a meeting between Sir Keir and senior civil servants; This appeared to confirm that the prime minister only learned on Tuesday that Lord Mandelson had been allowed to serve as Britain’s representative in Washington, against the advice of security officials.

The Prime Minister said he was “absolutely furious” and described it as “surprising” that he had not been briefed.

But Downing Street’s insistence that it was unaware of the issue has come under scrutiny after it emerged. Independent He contacted Number 10 about allegations that Mandelson had failed to complete his security clearance when he was fired from his post as US ambassador last September.

WhatsApp exchange between them Independent and Tim Allan, Downing Street’s former director of communications, have been described as “a deadpan gun” that makes it impossible to deny that No 10 was not made aware of the concerns, from the period when Mr Allan replied that “the review was carried out by the FCDO in the normal way”.

The statement raised questions about whether Sir Keir misled parliament in February by telling MPs that “due process was followed” and that Mandelson had approved the review.

The WhatsApp conversation with Mr Allan was presented by Trevor Phillips to technical secretary Liz Kendall, a key ally of the prime minister, on his political program on Sky News on Sunday morning.

He told Sir Trevor: “You’ll have to ask Tim Allan these questions. I won’t speak for him and I don’t think it’s fair for me to do so.”

When it was pointed out that Mr Allan was “responding to a journalist on behalf of the prime minister”, Ms Kendall replied: “All ministers were told that he (Mandelson) had enhanced review status. We were not told that the Foreign Office had taken that decision but that the UK security investigation had recommended against it.”

But former foreign secretary Sir James Cleverly, who said on Saturday it was “inconceivable” that the Prime Minister and David Lammy were unaware of any problems with the review, said he believed the WhatsApp exchange was a “smoking gun that shows the prime minister may not be telling the truth”.

Green leader Zack Polanski added: “This will be the closest thing we’ll get to a smoking gun, I think.”

On Sir Trevor’s programme, former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi said: “If David Maddox Independent I asked that question seven months ago, and I was in this room, and the prime minister’s communications officer at least said, ‘Where did this story come from?’ There’s no way he didn’t wonder. How did it fail? So why don’t we know this?’

“There’s no way the cabinet secretary wasn’t aware of this failure. They may not have the details, but at least they’re saying ‘by the way, we have a problem, he was appointed but then failed enhanced scrutiny.’

“They clearly got the memo from the Prime Minister or (former chief of staff) Morgan McSweeney that this appointment had been made.” [so] “Don’t question it.”

A former senior civil servant who dealt with a series of major crises that threatened to topple previous governments said the text exchange “points to some pretty serious dysfunction in the system”.

They added: “If the Cabinet Office knew about this seven months in advance and they didn’t tell the Prime Minister, or if they told the Prime Minister and he chose to ignore it, firstly that would let Olly off the hook completely and secondly it would raise much more fundamental questions about the way the center works.”

Kemi Badenoch, who has called on Sir Keir to resign over the issue, is expected to ask about the WhatsApp messages on Monday.

Meanwhile, the prime minister faces growing pressure to evaluate his position from within his own party, with senior figures from the left and right calling for him to resign.

Lord Maurice Glasman, founder of the influential Blue Labor Party on the right, said: Telegram: “It is no longer possible for him to continue as a reliable prime minister. Because he cannot say ‘I made a mistake, I’m sorry’.”

John McDonnell, Jeremy Corbyn’s former shadow chancellor, added: “The Starmer/Mandelson crisis is just one symptom of the toxic factionalism in Labor created by the dominance of the McSweeney/Mandelson Labor Together group.”

Lord Mandelson, a political appointee rather than a career diplomat, was fired from his post in Washington last September as more details emerged about his relationship with pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019.

Sir Keir was already under fire for his decision to give Lord Mandelson the job; However, it was known that their relationship with Epstein continued after the financier was convicted of sexual crimes against children.