Echo Comment on Starmer’s defence of his handling of Mandelson case

It does now seem, as staggering as it may be, that civil servants in the Foreign Office felt laws of confidentiality prevented them from revealing to anyone that Peter Mandelson had failed his vetting and so they went ahead and gave him security clearance. It is utterly baffling.

It must also be baffling to members of the public that someone can be appointed to a job before their references have been taken up, and when those references suggest they are unsuitable for the role, their appointment continues regardless.

Indeed, the Cabinet Secretary Simon Case saw how ridiculous this would look and advised Mr Starmer to go through all the vetting before making the appointment, but Mr Starmer ignored that advice because it went contrary to the normal order of things in the Foreign Office.

Mr Starmer’s defence is that “nobody told me”; however, it is also true that he never went out of his way to ask. Even with a barrister’s brain that is trained to see when crucial evidence is missing, even with a politician’s mindset that Mandelson might be trouble given his track record of causing a previous Labour Prime Minister great embarrassment, Mr Starmer couldn’t see the bigger picture and ask.

Perhaps he was blinded by his desire to get Mr Mandelson into the job. It is true that Mandelson had certain oleaginous skills that might ingratiate him to the Trump administration, but Mr Starmer has not explained why the appointment was so “weirdly rushed”.

Mr Starmer again yesterday apologised for appointing Mandelson, but it doesn’t matter how many times he apologises, the error can’t be wiped clean. And nor can the stain.