Keir Starmer said he was “absolutely furious” that he was not told Lord Mandelson failed security vetting before being appointed US ambassador.
Fallout grows after Mandelson appointment
According to Misryoum newsroom reporting, the Prime Minister’s position has faced renewed scrutiny after Mandelson was appointed UK ambassador to the US in 2024 despite failing his security vetting.
No 10 said the Foreign Office was responsible for the vetting process and that the failed decision was overturned, but without telling Starmer or any other minister. That gap—who knew what and when—has now become the centre of the argument.
Last night, the most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office, Olly Robbins, was sacked after he was understood to have lost the confidence of both Starmer and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.
Robbins has not yet spoken publicly about the move, but Foreign Affairs Committee Chair, Labour MP Emily Thornberry, has requested the former senior official appear before the select committee on Tuesday to give evidence.
In parliament today, Starmer didn’t mince words.
“I was not told that he had failed security vetting, no minister was told…
No 10 wasn’t told, that is completely unacceptable,” he said this morning.
“It is totally unacceptable that the Prime Minister making an appointment is not told that security vetting has been failed.”
No 10 actions and Monday transparency
Also speaking this morning, Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, Darren Jones, said he had suspended the Foreign Office’s ability to overturn security advice and launched an urgent investigation into how incidents like that could have taken place across government.
It’s the kind of week where details feel heavy. In Westminster, you could almost hear the building shift—papers shuffled somewhere behind a corridor door, that dry sound of steps over stone—while staffers quietly compared timelines.
Mandelson was sacked in September amid growing pressure over his links to the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The former Labour cabinet minister is currently being investigated by the police over allegations that he leaked confidential government documents to Epstein while in office.
And now, as the questions pile up around the vetting process itself, the story isn’t quite finished—how the failure was reversed, who carried the responsibility, and what ministers were actually told.
Misryoum editorial desk noted Starmer’s remarks make it clear he believes the system broke at the point where he should have been informed.
But whether the answers land neatly by Monday, well… that’s another matter.
Was the U.S. Navy built for “Barbary pirates,” not Iran?
Texas Medical Board sanctions doctors after pregnancy-care deaths
Growing backlog in immigration applications leaves millions waiting