The top Foreign Office official was found guilty of failure and resigned; Starmer has promised to deliver ‘relevant facts’ on Monday.
Published on 17 April 2026
Keir Starmer says he is “absolutely furious” that he was not informed that Peter Mandelson failed his security checks before being appointed Britain’s envoy to Washington, as the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister faces fresh calls to resign over the matter.
Starmer said on Friday she had been kept in the dark about the Foreign Office’s decision to reject the recommendation of security officials not to give the job to the Labor Party grandmaster, who was fired in September over links to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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Starmer, who has claimed he knew nothing about the investigation outcome, said the Foreign Office’s failure to inform him as prime minister was “shocking” and “inexcusable”, promising to “present all the relevant facts with true transparency” in parliament on Monday.
The embattled prime minister said he only became aware of the poor process on Tuesday, just before the revelations were published by The Guardian on Thursday, the same day top Foreign Office civil servant Ollie Robbins was fired.
Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Prime Minister, said on Friday that “the recommendation was not to appoint Peter Mandelson to the role” and that the Foreign Office ignored it. He said it was “surprising”, but within the rules.
He said no government minister had been told about the security assessment carried out by a department called UK Security Vetting. People familiar with the process told The Associated Press that this is standard practice because of the sensitive personal information involved, including “financial, personal, sexual, religious and other types of background information.”
Kemi Badenoch, leader of the opposition Conservative Party, said claims the prime minister did not know were “completely absurd”. He told the BBC: “This story is unacceptable. The Prime Minister is taking us for fools.” “All roads lead to resignation.”
Starmer has repeatedly stressed that “proper process” was followed in the appointment, which was announced in December 2024, with Mandelson taking up the post in February 2025.
She was fired just seven months later, after documents released by a US congressional committee revealed new details about the depth of her relationship with Epstein.
Police have launched an investigation into allegations of misconduct in office by Mandelson, who was arrested in February and granted bail. Investigators are looking into allegations that Epstein leaked sensitive documents when he was a government minister, including on the 2008 financial crash.
