PM insists he did not know security officials had recommended Mandelson be sidelined due to Epstein links.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 20 Apr 2026<\/span>20 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer has admitted he was wrong to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, but rejected mounting calls to resign.<\/p>\n Starmer told the UK Parliament on Monday that, while the appointment was a mistake, he would have withdrawn the decision had he known the Foreign Office had overruled security officials\u2019 recommendations not to give the job to Mandelson, whose friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was long known.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n The British leader again rejected calls for his resignation over the botched vetting process. Those calls have mounted as the issue has developed into a major scandal.<\/p>\n The premier denied misleading parliament and placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Foreign Office, saying that it beggared belief that officials \u201csaw fit to withhold this information from the most senior ministers in our system\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is not how the vast majority of people in this country expect politics, government or accountability to work,\u201d Starmer said, adding that it was \u201cfrankly staggering\u201d he had not been told about Mandelson\u2019s failure to gain security clearance, to the sound of jeers from opposition lawmakers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t appear that he asked any questions at all. Why? Because he didn\u2019t want to know,\u201d Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said.<\/p>\n The fiasco has raised doubts about Starmer\u2019s judgement, with the beleaguered prime minister claiming he only found out about the overruling of the vetting decision last week.<\/p>\n Starmer has repeatedly insisted that \u201cdue process\u201d was followed in the appointment, which was announced in December 2024, with Mandelson taking up the post in February 2025.<\/p>\n The Labour Party grandee was sacked just seven months later, after documents released by a United States Congressional committee revealed new details about the depth of his ties to financier Epstein.<\/p>\n The storm erupted after UK newspaper The Guardian published revelations on the vetting process on Thursday, with top Foreign Office civil servant Olly Robbins ousted on the same day.<\/p>\n Badenoch slammed Starmer for failing to take responsibility. \u201cIt is how you face up to those mistakes that shows the character of a leader,\u201d she told Parliament, saying he had thrown government officials \u201cunder the bus\u201d.<\/p>\n The scandal over Mandelson\u2019s relationship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, has already forced the resignation of Starmer\u2019s former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney.<\/p>\n The resurgence of the scandal comes three weeks before local elections in which Labour is expected to suffer heavy losses.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n PM insists he did not know security officials had recommended Mandelson be sidelined due to Epstein links. Published On 20 Apr 202620 Apr 2026 United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer has admitted he was wrong to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, but rejected mounting calls to resign. Starmer told the UK Parliament on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19717,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/2017-06-08T131939Z_1189275883_RC11B0FE7F20_RTRMADP_3_GULF-QATAR-JAZEERA-1714943623.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nRecommended Stories <\/h2>\n
Questions over PM\u2019s judgement<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"