{"id":18606,"date":"2026-04-21T11:16:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T11:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/18606\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T11:16:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T11:16:22","slug":"former-civil-servant-says-there-was-political-pressure-to-approve-peter-mandelson-as-uk-ambassador-to-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/18606\/","title":{"rendered":"Former civil servant says there was political pressure to approve Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to US"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former civil servant behind the decision to approve Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment as British ambassador to the US says he felt political pressure to rush through the appointment despite security concerns.<\/p>\n

Sir Olly Robbins, former head of the Foreign Office, was fired by Prime Minister Keir Starmer last week, following revelations the department overruled security vetting for Lord Mandelson’s appointment.<\/p>\n

Lord Mandelson was a powerful figure within the UK’s governing Labour Party, but was sacked as ambassador after revelations in the so-called Epstein files about his connections with the late convicted sex offender.<\/p>\n

Sir Olly told the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday that there was an “atmosphere of pressure” from Sir Keir’s office to speed up Lord Mandelson’s appointment.<\/p>\n

Mandelson failed vetting but was given UK ambassador to US job anyway<\/a><\/p>\n

Peter Mandelson was sacked from the role after revelations about his connections with the late sex offender became public.<\/p>\n

He said there was “a very, very strong expectation” that Lord Mandelson “needed to be in post and in America as quickly as possible”.<\/p>\n

The result was a “generally dismissive attitude to his vetting clearance”, Sir Olly added.<\/p>\n

“I think throughout January, honestly, my office, the foreign secretary’s office, were under constant pressure,” he told the committee.<\/p>\n

“There was an atmosphere of constant chasing.”<\/p>\n

The former UK official added Lord Mandelson did not fail security vetting because of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Peter Mandelson seen prior to Tuesday’s political showdown over his security clearance.\u00a0 (AP: Kin Cheung)<\/p>\n

He said the vetting agency considered Lord Mandelson a “borderline case” and was “leaning toward recommending against” giving him security clearance to be British ambassador to Washington.<\/p>\n

The Foreign Office decided to clear him anyway.<\/p>\n

Sir Olly declined to say when questioned by politicians what led the government’s vetting agency to flag Lord Mandelson as a potential security risk.<\/p>\n

Officials thought they could ‘mitigate risks’<\/p>\n

The former official also defended what he called a “rigorously followed process”.<\/p>\n

“I did not approve Mandelson because of pressure, but because officials thought we could mitigate risks raised in vetting,” he added.<\/p>\n

How the Epstein saga spread to British politics<\/a><\/p>\n

After dogging the US president for months, evidence of a connection to Jeffrey Epstein has claimed a senior scalp within the British government.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir is facing calls to resign over the revelation that Lord Mandelson was given the crucial diplomatic post despite failing security checks.<\/p>\n

The prime minister has said he made the wrong judgement when he picked Lord Mandelson for the job.<\/p>\n

But he said he would have withdrawn the appointment if he had known about the security vetting.<\/p>\n

He said it was “frankly staggering” that officials did not tell him about the failed vetting, which took place in January 2025.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir says he only found out last week.<\/p>\n

He has ordered a review into any security concerns arising from Lord Mandelson’s access to sensitive information while ambassador.<\/p>\n

Lord 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 \u2014 and potentially market-moving \u2014 government information to Epstein in 2009, after the global financial crisis.<\/p>\n

British police launched a criminal probe and arrested Lord Mandelson in February.<\/p>\n

He has previously denied wrongdoing and has not been charged. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.<\/p>\n

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