{"id":23347,"date":"2026-04-27T15:54:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T15:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/23347\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T15:54:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T15:54:21","slug":"keir-starmer-faces-mandelson-sleaze-probe-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/23347\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer Faces Mandelson Sleaze Probe Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keir Starmer <\/a>is to face a crunch vote on whether a sleaze probe should be launched into claims he misled parliament over the Peter Mandelson <\/a>scandal.<\/p>\n

In a major blow for the prime minister, Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle<\/a> said MPs should decide whether or not the Privileges Committee holds an investigation into the prime minister.<\/p>\n

Starmer has previously insisted that \u201cdue process\u201d was followed in the appointment of Mandelson as the UK\u2019s ambassador to Washington.<\/p>\n

He also insisted last week that \u201cno pressure whatsoever\u201d was placed on the Foreign Office to make sure the shamed former Labour <\/a>peer had the necessary security clearance to take up the post.<\/p>\n

But it emerged two weeks ago that UK Security Vetting had recommended that Mandelson not be given clearance.<\/p>\n

Sir Olly Robbins \u2013 the former top civil servant in the Foreign Office who was sacked by Starmer for not telling him about the UKSV verdict \u2013 told MPs last week that there was \u201cconstant pressure\u201d from No.10 to get Mandelson in place.<\/p>\n

Hoyle confirmed that the House of Commons will be given a vote on Tuesday on whether the Privileges Committee should carry out its own inquiry into the row.<\/p>\n

It is understood Labour MPs will be whipped to vote against an inquiry, with party chiefs insisting it is a political stunt ahead of the May 7 elections.<\/p>\n

But critics have accused Starmer of running scared of his own MPs by refusing to give them a free vote as he fears many of them will vote against him.<\/p>\n

A Labour insider told HuffPost UK: \u201cIt shouldn\u2019t be a problem but the PM\u2019s political and moral authority slipping away – MPs won\u2019t want to go into bat on something that the think will blow back in their faces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: \u201cKeir Starmer misled Parliament, sacked officials for his own failures, and risked national security with Mandelson\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cMPs will now vote on referring him to the Privileges Committee. The prime minister should be held to the same standards he held others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lib Dem Cabinet Office spokesperson Lisa Smart said: \u201cLabour MPs must put principle before party and vote to refer Keir Starmer to the Privileges Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter years of sleaze and scandal under the Conservatives, the public rightly expect better from this Labour government, not the same old instinct to cover things up.\u201d<\/p>\n

But a No.10 spokesman said: \u201cThe government is engaging with the two parliamentary processes that are already running on Peter Mandelson\u2019s appointment with full transparency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a desperate political stunt by the Conservative Party the week before the May elections because they have no answers on the cost of living or the NHS. Their claims have no substance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Subscribe to Commons People<\/a>, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week\u2019s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what\u2019s going on at Westminster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer is to face a crunch vote on whether a sleaze probe should be launched into claims…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,94,5035],"class_list":{"0":"post-23347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-keir-starmer","10":"tag-peter-mandelson"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116477484306457363","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23347","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=23347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}