Sunak: Starmer must take responsibility for Mandelson vetting scandal
Rishi Sunak has warned Sir Keir Starmer must take responsibility for the Peter Mandelson investigation scandal and argued his appointment as US ambassador was a “serious error of political judgement”.
Don’t write TimesThe former prime minister said the government “runs the risk of learning the wrong lessons from this regrettable episode” and argued it was “not a failure of process, but a failure of political judgement”.
In his first intervention on the matter, the Richmond MP said: “But I fear we risk learning the wrong lessons from this sad episode. A view is forming that we need more process. “We already have a review of vetting by a retired judge.
“The temptation for Downing Street will be to announce a new set of processes and claim they mean this mistake can’t happen again. The government will hope this will be their chance to move on from this scandal. But this approach misses the point and will actually make things worse.”
“Mandelson’s appointment was not a failure of process, but an error of political judgment. Responsibility for the decision lies with the prime minister. If the response to this crisis is more processual, it will only mean that the system is better prepared for ministers to actually change things, when what we need is better judgment and more sound decisions.”
“The right response to bad decisions is not to paralyze the process, but to better decision-makers,” said Sunak. “Add too many checks and balances and the system becomes unbalanced. This is where we find ourselves now. In the name of our democracy, we must not respond to this serious error of political judgment by making the situation worse.”
Earlier this month, Sir Keir Starmer said he had appointed Sir Adrian Fulford, the senior judge and chairman of the Southport Inquiry, to lead a review into how vetting decisions were made.
After saying he was “clearly surprised” that he was not told that the UK Security Review (UKSV) had recommended Lord Mandelson not be granted enhanced scrutiny of the US embassy, he said Sir Adrian’s inquiry would examine “the means by which all decisions relating to the national security review were made”.
The Prime Minister has repeatedly told MPs that he and his ministers only learned that UKSV had advised Lord Mandelson not to be given leave for the role last Tuesday evening. Independent It raised concerns last September that it had failed to review and failed to publish a front-page story about it, leading to allegations of a cover-up.
Sir Keir is now facing increasing political pressure over the scandal and his premiership is also in jeopardy.
on friday, Independent It has revealed the Prime Minister could face a House of Commons vote as early as next week, sparking an investigation into his handling of the review saga.
Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle looks set to give MPs a say in whether the prime minister should be referred to the powerful House of Commons Privileges Committee for an investigation into whether he misled parliament about the appointment of his disgraced peer.
It came after MPs from both houses of the House, including Labor, are understood to have written to the speaker demanding that the committee dealing with serious disciplinary issues in parliament investigate the Prime Minister.
Sir Lindsay is expected to make a statement about the letters on Monday; This means Sir Keir could face a vote in the House of Commons on Tuesday – the same day his former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney will be grilled by MPs over his role in Lord Mandelson’s appointment.
