Peter Mandelson’s spectre returns to haunt the Prime Minister

The fragile period of stasis amid doubts about the Prime Minister’s leadership has fractured, after The Guardian revealed that Peter Mandelson failed security vetting to become US ambassador, only for the decision to be overruled by the Foreign Office.

It’s the latest change to the story that has been told by Starmer in relation to this scandal, sparking incredulity among some MPs and even among ministerial ranks and has re-erupted the questions around his competency. One Labour MP reportedly said that “terminal death is now on speed”, while a government minister told The Times that “there can be no more excuses… we’re past apologies… the PM must go.”

For his part, Keir Starmer is said to be “absolutely furious” and did not know about this latest revelation until earlier this week. However, that still begs the question as to why the government didn’t act sooner to establish the facts before it emerged in the press, putting Downing Street on the back foot.

As is cliché in these situations, deputy heads have already rolled with the sacking of top civil servant Olly Robbins. But his departure won’t stop the flood of questions that now require answers. Why would Robbins overrule the vetting procedure if he didn’t feel pressure from others? Did the Prime Minister really only find out only this week – and why didn’t he correct the record sooner rather than later? And, most fundamentally, can Starmer still claim that he and his government still represent the highest bar for standards?

Foreign Affairs Select Committee chair Emily Thornberry was blunt in her analysis: “My committee asked several times whether red flags had been raised by Peter Mandelson’s vetting process. It seems there were. People need to stop messing us about and tell us the truth.”

Expect an explosive session of Parliament on Monday when the Prime Minister looks to address the latest revelations to MPs directly. It won’t just be the country he will be trying to convince, but his own MPs too amid growing questions about whether Starmer is the right person to lead the party.

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Editor Emma Burnell said: “There is a famous quote by US journalist Upton Sinclair – “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

“Perhaps if this were retooled for modern times it might read: “It is easy not to ask the right questions when the wrong answer might cost you your job.”

“I understand that Keir Starmer is furious. I’m furious. But the person we should both be furious with is the PM himself. Because at best the lack of proper curiosity that should have lead him to question the appointment of Peter Mandelson in the first place has clearly continued into the process of getting to the bottom of why it was allowed.

“Starmer doesn’t just have to answer to Parliament on Monday. He will have to answer to Labour members, councillors and candidates who will be slogging their guts out to try and elect as many Labour representatives as possible over this weekend and have just found that job even harder than it was before. That answer will have to be good.”

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