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<\/p>\nFILE – People stand around floral tributes and candles placed outside the sealed off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, on Jan. 3, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year’s celebrations. (AP Photo\/ Antonio Calanni, File)<\/p>\n
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LONDON (AP) \u2014 The ex-civil servant behind the decision to approve Peter Mandelson ‘s appointment as British ambassador to Washington says he felt political pressure to rush through the appointment despite security concerns.<\/p>\n
Olly Robbins, former head of the Foreign Office, said those concerns did not relate to Mandelson’s relationship with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He declined to say when questioned by lawmakers what led the government’s 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. <\/p>\n
The Foreign Office decided to clear him anyway. Robbins was fired by Prime Minister Keir Starmer last week over the decision. Starmer is facing questions about his own judgment, and calls to resign, over the appointment. <\/p>\n
Robbins told the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday that there was an \u201catmosphere of pressure\u201d coming from Starmer\u2019s office.<\/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 possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robbins said there was \u201ca generally dismissive attitude\u201d to the security vetting in January 2025, before Mandelson went to Washington.<\/p>\n
Starmer acknowledged on Monday that he made the wrong judgment when he picked Mandelson for the job. But he said he would have withdrawn the appointment if he\u2019d known about the security vetting.<\/p>\n
Starmer has placed blame squarely on Foreign Office officials, who he said failed to tell him about the security concerns and approved Mandelson\u2019s appointment despite them.<\/p>\n
He called it \u201cfrankly staggering\u201d that officials didn\u2019t tell him about the failed vetting, which took place in January 2025. Starmer says he only found out last week.<\/p>\n
Starmer fired Mandelson 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.<\/p>\n
He has ordered a review into any security concerns arising from Mandelson\u2019s access to sensitive information while ambassador.<\/p>\n
Critics say the Mandelson appointment is more evidence of bad judgment by a prime minister who has made repeated missteps since he led Labour to a landslide election victory 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. But his expertise as a former European Union trade chief and contacts among global elites were considered assets in dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s 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 in February, when some Labour lawmakers urged him to resign over the Mandelson appointment.<\/p>\n
Mandelson is under police investigation for suspected misconduct in public office after a trove of Epstein-related documents 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 in February. Mandelson has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn\u2019t been charged. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.<\/p>\n
FILE – Olly Robbins walks on Whitehall in Westminster, London, Jan. 17, 2019. (Dominic Lipinski\/PA via AP, File)<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n
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