Overview
- Prime Minister Keir Starmer told MPs on Monday that appointing Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US was a mistake and he apologized to Jeffrey Epstein’s victims.
- The Guardian revealed that the Foreign Office granted Mandelson security clearance in January 2025 despite an adverse vetting recommendation, undercutting Starmer’s earlier claim that all procedures were followed.
- Downing Street now says Starmer inadvertently misled Parliament, while the prime minister says neither he nor his ministers were told of the adverse advice before Mandelson took the post.
- Starmer fired the top Foreign Office official Olly Robbins last week, and Robbins told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that his team faced pressure from Downing Street to hurry Mandelson’s clearance.
- Opposition leaders are calling for Starmer’s resignation, police are probing Mandelson after February home searches linked to new US Justice Department files, and Labour faces voter judgment in early May local elections.