Rabat – UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday told parliament he was unaware that Peter Mandelson had been flagged by security checks before his appointment as envoy to the United States.
The remarks come after Olly Robbins, a senior foreign ministry official who was fired last week, said Starmer had a “dismissive attitude” towards the security vetting process.
Downing Street on Tuesday denied a claim from a former official that it had applied pressure on civil servants to approve Mandelson’s appointment as UK envoy to Washington and dismissed suggestions it had ignored security concerns.
Starmer has been mired in a growing scandal over his decision to appoint Mandelson before later sacking him over links to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Officials describe “constant pressure” from Downing Street over the speed of appointment
Robbins, the most senior foreign ministry official until his dismissal, told MPs on Tuesday that Starmer’s office had shown a “dismissive attitude” towards the vetting process. There was a “very strong expectation coming from Downing Street that Mandelson needed to be in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible,” Robbins told a parliamentary watchdog committee.
“My office, the foreign secretary’s office, were under constant pressure; there was an atmosphere of constant chasing,” he added.
A Drowning Street spokesman rejected that account, saying there was “clearly a difference between asking for updates on an appointment process” and being dismissive about vetting.
Government minister Darren Jones told an emergency parliamentary debate on Tuesday that “no such pressure was applied beyond asking for the process to be completed as quickly as possible.”
On Monday, Starmer told parliament he was “wrong” to appoint Mandelson but accused officials of deliberately withholding information that the Labour politician had been denied security clearance.
The Foreign Office subsequently approved Mandelson, long known to have ties to Epstein, despite the government now confirming that independent vetting officials had recommended that clearance be denied.
Calls for resignation grow after reports vetting officials advised against clearance
That revelation, first reported by The Guardian last Thursday, has prompted renewed calls for Starmer to resign after he had previously insisted all “due process” had been followed. During Tuesday’s debate, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch urged Labour MPs to hold a vote of no confidence in him.
Starmer has blamed officials for keeping him in the dark about the security concerns, and on Monday, he denied misleading Parliament in earlier statements.
Robbins offered a more nuanced account in his testimony, saying he approved Mandelson after vetting officials concluded he was a “borderline” case.
“I was briefed that they were leaning toward recommending that clearance be denied but that the Foreign Office security department assessed that the risks could be managed and/or mitigated,” Robbins said.
“I was also told that the risks did not relate to Mandelson’s relationship with Jefferey Epstein,” he added.
UK media have reported that concerns instead centered on links between Mandelson’s now-closed lobbying firm and Chinese companies.
Mandelson, 72, was appointed to the diplomatic post in December 2024, shortly before US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, and took up the role in February 2025.
Robbins acknowledged that denying clearance would have been a “difficult problem” for both the foreign secretary and the prime minister. But “that was not what was on my mind as we took this decision,” he added, noting it could have “damaged” UK-US relations.
Starmer dismissed Mandelson in September 2025, just seven months after his appointment to the role, following the emergence of further details about his ties to Epstein, who died in a US prison in 2019 while facing sex-trafficking charges.
UK police are now investigating allegations that Mandelson leaked sensitive documents to Epstein during his time as a government minister, including during the 2008 financial crisis. He was arrested and released in February and has not been charged. Mandelson denies wrongdoing.
US President Donald Trump also weighed in on the controversy, saying on his Truth Social platform that Mandelson “was a really bad pick” for the Washington role, while adding, “Plenty of time to recover, however!”
Starmer said on Monday he had ordered a review of the security vetting process, though former civil servants have accused him of scapegoating Robbins.
On Tuesday, Starmer told ministers that Robbins “made an error of judgment” but was a “man of integrity.”
