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The ex-civil servant behind the decision to approve Peter Mandelson ‘s appointment as British ambassador to Washington says he felt political pressure from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office to rush through the appointment despite security concerns.
The testimony by former Foreign Office head Olly Robbins turns up the heat on Starmer, who is facing calls to resign over the appointment of a scandal-tainted former politician and friend of Jeffrey Epstein to one of the UK’s most important diplomatic posts.
The prime minister fired Robbins last week after the revelation that Mandelson was approved for the job against the recommendation of the government’s security vetting agency.
Robbins said the security concerns about Mandelson did not relate to his relationship with Epstein. He declined to say when questioned by lawmakers what led the government’s vetting agency to flag Mandelson as a potential security risk.
Robbins said the vetting agency considered Mandelson a “borderline case” and was “leaning toward recommending against” giving him security clearance. Robbins decided to clear him anyway.
Starmer has called it “staggering” that Foreign Office officials failed to tell him about the security concerns, which he says he only found out about last week.
But Robbins said the rules bar details of the sensitive vetting process from being shared except in “exceptional circumstances.”
Robbins told the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday that there was an “atmosphere of pressure” coming from Starmer’s office to approve the appointment in January 2025, so Mandelson could be in post at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.
He said there was “a very, very strong expectation” that Mandelson “needed to be in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible.”
Robbins said there was “a generally dismissive attitude” to the security vetting in January 2025, before Mandelson went to Washington.
However, Robbins insisted his department “did not bow to that pressure.” He said his decision to grant Mandelson clearance was based on security advice that the risks could be managed.
Starmer acknowledged on Monday that he made the wrong judgment when he picked Mandelson for the job. But he said he would have withdrawn the appointment if he’d known about the security vetting.
Starmer fired Mandelson in September, nine months into the job, when new details emerged about his friendship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.
He has ordered a review into any security concerns arising from Mandelson’s access to sensitive information while ambassador.
Critics say the Mandelson appointment is more evidence of bad judgment by a prime minister who has made repeated missteps since he led Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024.
He picked Mandelson as ambassador despite being warned by his staff that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein exposed the government to “reputational risk.”
Mandelson’s business links to Russia and China also set off alarm bells. But his expertise as a former European Union trade chief and contacts among global elites were considered assets in dealing with the Trump administration.
The scandal has caused gloom among lawmakers in Starmer’s center-left Labour Party, already anxious about its dire poll ratings. Starmer already defused one potential crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers urged him to resign over the Mandelson appointment.
Mandelson is under police investigation for suspected misconduct in public office after a trove of Epstein-related documents released by the US Department of Justice in January included emails suggesting Mandelson had passed on sensitive — and potentially market-moving — government information to Epstein in 2009, after the global financial crisis.
British police launched a criminal probe and arrested Mandelson in February. Mandelson has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.
English (US)