Politics Home | MPs Vote Down Tory Bid To Refer PM To Privileges Committee Over Mandelson

Prime Minister Keir Starmer avoided a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday evening over whether he misled the House of Commons. (Alamy)

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The House of Commons voted against the move by 335 to 223 on Tuesday night, with a majority of Labour MPs rowing in behind the Prime Minister.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has accused Starmer of misleading Parliament in his claim that due process was fully followed in the appointment of Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US.

The PM has apologised for his decision to appoint the former Labour cabinet minister, but insisted that due process was followed throughout.

Starmer said the vote, which was granted by House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, was a “political stunt” by rival parties ahead of next week’s local elections.

While the majority of Labour MPs sided with the government, a small number on the left of the party voted to refer Starmer to a Privileges Committee investigation.

15 Labour MPs voted for the motion, including former shadow chancellor John McDonnell and former Labour leadership candidate Rebecca Long-Bailey.

Another rebel was Emma Lewell, MP for South Shields, who, speaking in the debate before the vote, said it was wrong that government whips had ordered Labour MPs to oppose the motion.

“I have watched this whole sorry saga play out for weeks now,” said Lewell.

“Like the public, I feel let down and disappointed. I am angry. Peter Mandelson should never have been appointed. This was a fundamental failure of judgment.”

Over 50 Labour MPs did not take part in the vote, though some of those will have been granted permission by the government to be elsewhere.

Starmer’s original decision to appoint Mandelson to the senior diplomatic role has put intense pressure on his leadership and resulted in the resignation of Morgan McSweeney as his chief of staff earlier this year.

Appearing before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee earlier on Tuesday, McSweeney said Mandelson had withheld information about the true extent of his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein before being appointed to Washington, adding that he regrets not asking Whitehall ethics officials to carry out more scrutiny of his appointment.

“How I understood it at the time was a passing acquaintance that he regretted having, and that he apologised for,” he told MPs.

“What has emerged since then was way, way, way worse than I had expected at the time.

“And it was when I saw the pictures, when I saw the [Bloomberg revelations] in September 2025, I have to say it was like a knife through my soul.”