LONDON —British Prime Minister Keir Starmeracknowledged Monday that he made the wrong judgment when he picked Jeffrey Epstein 's friend Peter Mandelson as U.K. ambassador to Washington, batting away a barrage ofcalls to resignover a scandal that has left his leadership teetering.
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Starmer said he would have withdrawn the appointment if he'd known Mandelson had failed security checks, as he tried to explain why Mandelson was given the U.K.'s most important diplomatic post. Starmer placed blame squarely on Foreign Office officials who he said failed to tell him about the security concerns and approved Mandelson's appointment despite them.
Starmer told lawmakers in the House of Commons that "I would not have gone ahead with the appointment" had he known the truth. He called it "frankly staggering" that officials didn't tell him about the failed vetting.
"At the heart of this, there is also a judgment I made that was wrong," Starmer added. "I should not have appointed Peter Mandelson.
"I take responsibility for that decision, and I apologize again to the victims of the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who were clearly failed by my decision."
Starmer fired Mandelson in September, nine months into the job, when newdetails emerged about his friendship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.
His explanation was greeted with jeers from opposition lawmakers, incredulous that the nation's leader hadn't known about the failed security vetting.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenochsaid Starmer's lack of curiosity was hard to believe.
"It doesn't appear that he asked any questions at all. Why? Because he didn't want to know," she said.
Starmer was attempting to set the record straight after repeatedly telling lawmakers that "due process" was followed when Mandelson was appointed.
Though he apologized for his error of judgment, he denied misleading Parliament, which is usually considered a resigning offense.
Starmer fired the top Foreign Office civil servant, Olly Robbins, within hours of the revelation by The Guardian last week. But allies of Robbins say he never would have been able to share sensitive vetting information with the prime minister.
Robbins is expected to give his own version of events to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.
