Sir Keir Starmer was not aware that the Foreign Office overruled a security vetting process for Lord Peter Mandelson to become UK ambassador to Washington “until earlier this week”, the Government has said.
It comes after The Guardian reported that security officials initially denied Lord Mandelson clearance, but the Prime Minister had already named him as Britain’s top diplomat in the US, and the Foreign Office took the rare step of overruling the recommendation.
Sir Keir has previously insisted due process was followed in the appointment, and that Lord Mandelson had lied about the extent of his links with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
A government spokesperson said: “The security vetting process for Peter Mandelson was sponsored by the FCDO.
“The decision to grant developed vetting to Peter Mandelson against the recommendation of UK Security Vetting was taken by officials in the FCDO.
“Neither the Prime Minister, nor any government minister, was aware that Peter Mandelson was granted developed vetting against the advice of UK Security Vetting until earlier this week.
“Once the Prime Minister was informed he immediately instructed officials to establish the facts about why the developed vetting was granted, in order to enact plans to update the House of Commons.”
They said the Government is committed to complying with the parliamentary motion to disclose documents relating to Lord Mandelson’s appointment “in full as soon as possible”.
Documents to be provided to the parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC) as part of the disclosure will include documents provided to the FCDO by UK Security Vetting, the spokesperson said.
Sir Keir has previously said that vetting carried out independently by the security services “gave him clearance for the role”.
But the peer was not granted approval following the secretive process by the Cabinet Office’s UK Security Vetting (UKSV) last January, The Guardian reported.
Sir Keir is facing calls to resign over the matter.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Sir Keir had misled Parliament by saying “full due process” was followed, that he had wrongly said Lord Mandelson cleared the vetting, and that he failed to put out all documents required under a parliamentary measure to disclose details of the appointment.
She said: “Each of those three things is a very serious problem for the Prime Minister, unless he can prove all three wrong, he is definitely in resigning territory. There are not enough Conservative MPs to make that happen.
“However, Labour MPs now need to ask themselves, are we prepared to keep this man who has lied and lied again in Downing Street?”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Keir Starmer had already made a catastrophic error of judgment. Now it looks as though he has also misled Parliament and lied to the British public. If that is the case, he must go.
“Labour came into government on a promise to clean up politics. Instead we’re seeing the same old sleaze, scandal and cover-ups as we did under the Conservatives.”
The Green Party and Reform UK also called for Sir Keir to resign.
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