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British Prime MinisterKeir Starmerprobably wishes he had never heard the namePeter Mandelson.
Starmer is again facing questions over his future. And again, it’s do with his misguided decision to appoint a self-professed “best pal” of convicted sex offenderJeffrey Epsteinto the plummiest of plum jobs in U.K. diplomacy — that of ambassador to the United States.
Two months ago when he was last imperiled over the appointment in late 2024, it was his judgment that was in question. Enough for some in hisLabour Party, including its leader in Scotland, to urge him to stand down.
Now, he’s facing accusations that he misled Parliament over how Mandelson cleared the official hurdles to get the job in the first place.
If he’s found to have done so, he will be on very thin ice, not least because Starmer put integrity at the heart of his pitch to the British electorate at the July 2024 election to replace the scandal-plagued Conservatives.
“Starmer set himself up as the guy who always followed the rules, in stark contrast to, say,Boris Johnson, and he came to power effectively promising to ‘drain the swamp’,” said Tim Bale, politics professor at Queen Mary University of London.
“Because of that, the latest revelations in the unholy mess created by his ill-judged appointment of Peter Mandelson mean that many voters now see him not only as a liar but as a hypocrite — and hypocrisy is one of the worst sins that any British politician can possibly commit,” he added.
The vetting bombshell
On Thursday, The Guardian newspaper revealed that Mandelson was initially denied security clearance for the post he was eventually fired from nine months later. This is a problem for Starmer as he told Parliament that “full due process” was observed.
The government stressed that Starmer and other ministers only found out earlier this week that the Foreign Office made a different overall assessment. The fallout has already led to the resignation of the Foreign Office’s top civil servant, Olly Robbins.
Starmer is trying to fend off questions about what he did or didn’t know about the vetting process, which would have involved an assessment of Mandelson’s suitability for the role in light of questions over his finances, his relationships, including that with Epstein, and his personality.
