Main developments
Sir Keir Starmer claimed “a deliberate decision was taken” to withhold from him the UK Security Vetting recommendation against granting clearance to Lord Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US.
The prime minister has been addressing the House of Commons to give his version of events in the Mandelson vetting scandal, which has plunged the government into a new crisis.
Starmer argued that the UKSV’s advice to deny security clearance “could and should have been shared with me” before Mandelson took up the role.
Starmer opened his statement with an apology for appointing Mandelson and accepting responsibility for the move. He declined to disclose why Mandelson failed the vetting process, telling MPs that the information in the review “must be protected”.
The prime minister’s statement comes amid mounting questions over his handling of Mandelson’s vetting.
Starmer sacked Sir Olly Robbins as head of the Foreign Office last week, and has previously said he did not know Mandelson had failed the process.
Earlier on Monday government documents emerged that suggested Starmer ignored advice that any political appointee for the job of ambassador to the US should undergo national security vetting before being formally appointed.
Robbins, who is taking legal advice over his dismissal, will give his account of the process in evidence to MPs on Tuesday morning.
Starmer fends off calls for him to quit
Sir Keir Starmer has fended off calls for him to quit by claiming he was “deliberately” kept in the dark in the Peter Mandelson vetting affair, but the silence and sullen faces on the Labour benches in the House of Commons confirmed that he remains in serious political danger.
During a chastening two-and-a-half hour session, Starmer was accused of weak leadership, scapegoating officials and wilful ignorance over Mandelson’s vetting failure ahead of the Labour grandee’s appointment as UK ambassador to the US.
While most Labour MPs believe Starmer’s position as prime minister is not at immediate risk, the Mandelson saga is sapping his authority with more damage expected in the coming days.
Was Robbins responding to PM’s ‘desire’ when he pushed through appointment, Tory MP asks
A Conservative MP said he was concerned that the now-sacked senior civil servant Olly Robbins “was responding to a desire from the prime minister” when he decided to ignore the security vetting advice he received.
“The official wished to deliver on the desire of the minister, that’s why he overruled the advice, and I fear also gave . . . the prime minister a degree of plausible deniability,” Oliver Dowden, former deputy prime minister, said.
Starmer said that Robbins had told him on Thursday that he took the view that “the process did not allow him to disclose to me the recommendation of UKSV”.