Appointing Mandelson a mistake, but did not mislead parl: UK PM

British PM Keir Starmer on Monday denied misleading parliament over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as UK envoy to Washington, and accused officials of deliberately hiding information that the Labour politician had been denied security clearance. Starmer, who is struggling to contain the fallout over his decision to name Mandelson to the coveted post, admitted he had been wrong to appoint the 72-year-old to the job.

Mandelson was already a known associate of late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and had twice had to resign from earlier Labour govt posts.



Addressing parliament again about the deepening political row, Starmer said: "At the heart of this, there is also a judgment I made that was wrong. I should not have appointed Peter Mandelson."

The scandal has threatened to bring down the PM, who faced fresh calls to quit last week after it was revealed that Mandelson had failed security checks. Starmer has insisted he and other ministers had not been told until last week that the Mandelson's security approval had been declined. "It beggars belief that throughout the whole timeline of events, officials in the foreign office saw fit to withhold this information from the most senior ministers in our system, in govt," he told MPs.

The information about Mandelson's failed security vetting had been withheld from him, he said. "I was not provided with information I should have been provided with. Had I been provided, I wouldn't have made the decision. It was a deliberate decision. It wasn't negligence. It was a deliberate decision not to tell me."

Two lawmakers-one from the left-wing Your Party and another from the far-right Reform UK-were removed from the session for accusing Starmer of lying over the issue and refusing to withdraw their statements. "He is gaslighting the nation. So let's call this out for what it is. The PM is a bare-faced liar," said left-winger Zarah Sultana before being ordered out by the speaker.

Last Thursday, Starmer sacked the foreign office's top civil servant, Olly Robins, telling lawmakers he had also now set in motion a review of the security vetting process. But former civil servants have accused the prime minister of scapegoating Robbins, who will give his own account to a parliamentary watchdog committee on Tuesday.

Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch argued it was "time for the truth", claiming govt's story about what happened has "murkier and more contradictory". "We still do not know exactly why Peter Mandelson failed that vetting," she told parliament. She and Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey again called for Starmer to resign. Davey said the prime minister had made "a catastrophic error of judgment, and now that it's blown up in his face, the only decent thing to do is to take responsibility". AFP