Starmer calls civil servants’ actions in Mandelson row ‘absolutely unforgivable’

Sir Keir Starmer has pinned the blame for the appointment of Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the US firmly on unelected civil servants, in a speech to incredulous MPs.

The Prime Minister has come under increased pressure over his decision to hand the former Labour grandee the top role in British diplomacy, since it emerged last week he failed vetting after the announcement was made.

No 10 has blamed that situation on figures in the Foreign Office who gave Starmer’s pick the green light without mentioning the vetting issues.

But opposition figures have voiced skepticism that the PM would never have learned about it before last week.

Addressing a packed House of Commons this afternoon, he said he ‘would not have gone ahead with the appointment’ if he had known officials had recommended developed vetting clearance be denied.

Starmer said: ‘Let me be very clear – the recommendation in the Mandelson case could and should have been shared with me before he took up his post.’

He revealed that he had changed the way appointments are made through the Foreign Office to ensure vetting must take place beforehand.

The PM added he found it ‘staggering’ that no top government figures were told about the decision not to approve developed vetting for the former Labour peer – before or after he was sacked.

As he tried to set out a timeline of occasions when he said ministers were let down by civil servants, many of his comments were met with roars of laughter from MPs.

On Thursday night, the top civil servant in the Foreign Office Sir Olly Robbins was sacked hours after the Guardian first reported the vetting revelations.

Robbins was responsible for overruling the decision of UK Security Vetting (UKSV), the body that recommended against giving Mandelson clearance.

The PM said Robbins had also jointly signed a letter to the Foreign Affairs select committee with Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper in September last year, which addressed the vetting process but failed to mention UKSV’s conclusion.

Starmer told MPs: ‘That the Foreign Secretary was advised on and allowed to sign this statement by Foreign Office officials without being told that UKSV had recommended Peter Mandelson be denied developed vetting clearance is absolutely unforgivable.’

There were gales of mocking laughter when the PM said: ‘I know many members across the House will find these facts to be incredible.’

He continued: ‘To that I can only say they are right.

‘It beggars belief that throughout the whole timeline of events, officials in the Foreign Office saw fit to withhold this information from the most senior ministers in our system of government.’

Responding to Starmer’s statement, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: ‘Instead of taking responsibility for the decisions he made, the Prime Minister has thrown his staff and his officials under the bus.

‘This is a man who once said, “I will carry the can for the mistakes of any organisation I lead.”‘

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey compared Starmer to Boris Johnson in 2022, when the then-Tory PM was accused of misleading Parliamentand throwing officials under the bus.

Sir Ed said: ‘He blames his officials, he says he had no idea, he gives every impression of a Prime Minister in office but not in power.’

He concluded his question: ‘After years of chaos under the Conservatives, we needed a government focused on the interests of the people – the cost of living crisis, the health and care crisis, our national security.

‘We needed a government with honesty, integrity and accountability, so will the Prime Minister finally accept that the only way he can help to deliver that is to resign?’

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