Starmer Calls Mandleson Security Failure ‘Unforgivable’

Keir Starmer has lashed out at the Foreign Office saying it is “unforgivable” that he was not told Peter Mandelson failed security vetting.

The prime minister is under fresh pressure after the Guardian revealed the ex-Labour peer failed security vetting – only for Foreign Office officials to reportedly override advice and to give Mandelson the job as ambassador to the US anyway.

Starmer then fired the most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office, Olly Robbins, on Thursday night.

“That I wasn’t told that Peter Mandelson had failed security vetting when he was appointed is staggering,” the prime minister told Sky News.

Starmer is currently in Paris where he is co-hosting a meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron about reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

But, dogged by this domestic issue which threatens to undo his premiership, Starmer insisted that he did not know about Mandelson’s vetting failure.

He said: “That I wasn’t told that he had failed security vetting when I was telling parliament that due process had been followed is unforgivable.

“Not only was I not told, no minister was told. I am absolutely furious about that.”

He said he intends to go to parliament on Monday and “set out all the relevant facts in true transparency”.

Almost speaking through gritted teeth, the prime minister insisted he was not informed that Mandelson had failed vetting.

“No.10 wasn’t told that he had failed security vetting. That is completely unacceptable,” he said.

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