{"id":18664,"date":"2026-04-21T12:23:28","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/18664\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T12:23:28","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:23:28","slug":"fired-former-uk-official-says-he-felt-political-pressure-to-approve-peter-mandelson-as-us-ambassador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/18664\/","title":{"rendered":"Fired former UK official says he felt political pressure to approve Peter Mandelson as US ambassador"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON (AP) \u2014 The top official behind the decision to approve Peter Mandelson<\/a> \u2018s appointment as British ambassador to Washington said Tuesday that he felt political pressure from Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s office to rush through the appointment, despite security concerns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Claims by former Foreign Office head Olly Robbins that Starmer\u2019s office had a \u201cdismissive attitude\u201d to security vetting increase the heat on Britain\u2019s leader, who is facing calls to resign<\/a> over the appointment of the friend of Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> to one of the U.K.’s most important diplomatic posts. <\/p>\n

The prime minister fired Robbins last week after the revelation that Mandelson was approved for the job in January 2025 against the recommendation of the government\u2019s security vetting agency.<\/p>\n

Robbins said the concerns about Mandelson did not relate to his relationship with Epstein. He declined to say when questioned by lawmakers what led the government\u2019s vetting agency to flag Mandelson as a potential security risk.<\/p>\n

Robbins said the vetting agency considered Mandelson a \u201cborderline case\u201d and was \u201cleaning toward recommending against\u201d giving him security clearance. Robbins decided to clear him anyway.<\/p>\n

Politicians wanted appointment approved<\/p>\n

Starmer has called it \u201cstaggering\u201d that Foreign Office officials failed to tell him about the security concerns, which he says he only found out about last week.<\/p>\n

But Robbins said the rules bar details of the sensitive vetting process from being shared except in \u201cexceptional circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robbins told the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee that there was an \u201catmosphere of pressure\u201d coming from Starmer\u2019s office to approve the appointment so Mandelson could be in post at the start of President Donald Trump<\/a> \u2018s second term.<\/p>\n

He said there was \u201ca very, very strong expectation\u201d that Mandelson \u201cneeded to be in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible\u201d and \u201ca generally dismissive attitude\u201d to the security vetting from Starmer\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Robbins said he was \u201cvery conscious\u201d that refusing Mandelson security clearance would have caused \u201ca real problem for the government and a problem for the country\u201d in relations with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Robbins insisted his department \u201cdid not bow to that pressure.\u201d He said his decision to grant Mandelson clearance was based on security advice that the risks could be managed.<\/p>\n

Robbins declined to identify any individuals as being behind the pressure. Starmer\u2019s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney, a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Mandelson, resigned in February<\/a>, saying he took responsibility for the decision to appoint Mandelson.<\/p>\n

Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said Robbins\u2019 testimony \u201cis devastating to Keir Starmer.\u201d <\/p>\n

She said \u201cit is now absolutely clear that \u2018full due process\u2019 was not followed. Keir Starmer has misled the House\u201d of Commons \u2014 generally considered a resigning offense.<\/p>\n

Starmer has denied misleading lawmakers. He acknowledged on Monday that he made the wrong judgment when he picked Mandelson for the job, but said he would have withdrawn the appointment if he\u2019d known about the failed security vetting.<\/p>\n

Starmer fired Mandelson<\/a> in September, nine months into the job, when new details emerged about his friendship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He has ordered a review into any security concerns arising from Mandelson\u2019s access to sensitive information while ambassador.<\/p>\n

Questions over Starmer\u2019s judgment<\/p>\n

Critics say the Mandelson appointment is more evidence of bad judgment by a prime minister who has made repeated missteps<\/a> since he led Labour to a landslide election victory<\/a> in July 2024.<\/p>\n

He picked Mandelson as ambassador despite being warned by his staff that Mandelson\u2019s friendship with Epstein exposed the government to \u201creputational risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mandelson\u2019s business links to Russia and China also set off alarm bells. And, aside from his association with Epstein, Mandelson had to resign twice from senior posts in previous Labour governments because of scandals over money or ethics.<\/p>\n

But his expertise as a former European Union trade chief and contacts among global elites were considered assets in dealing with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

The scandal has caused gloom among lawmakers in Starmer\u2019s center-left Labour Party, already anxious about its dire poll ratings. Starmer already defused one potential crisis<\/a> in February, when some Labour lawmakers urged him to resign over the Mandelson appointment.<\/p>\n

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said he had raised concerns about the choice of ambassador, but didn\u2019t think Starmer should resign over the debacle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf every time a prime minister made a mistake they resigned, we would shuttle through prime ministers like nobody\u2019s business,\u201d he told the BBC.<\/p>\n

Mandelson is under police investigation for suspected misconduct in public office after a trove of Epstein-related documents<\/a> released by the U.S. 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 Mandelson<\/a> in February. Mandelson has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn\u2019t been charged<\/a>. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON (AP) \u2014 The top official behind the decision to approve Peter Mandelson \u2018s appointment as British ambassador…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,2403,8559,361,3795,44,6676,94,8561,5035,14,6,3396,461,8560,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-18664","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-diplomacy","10":"tag-district-of-columbia","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-ed-miliband","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-jeffrey-epstein","15":"tag-keir-starmer","16":"tag-morgan-mcsweeney","17":"tag-peter-mandelson","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-united-kingdom-government","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-government","23":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116442680768014387","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18664"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18664\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}