Whitehall safety officers ‘livid’ after Starmer blames them for failing to vet Mandelson… as they model PM’s declare he was misled over ex-peer’s relationship with Epstein ‘farcical’

Yesterday Keir Starmer attempted to shift the blame onto vetting failures for the Mandelson/Epstein fiasco. 

And, as with every other aspect of the Prime Minister’s efforts to contain this crisis, it’s promptly blown up in his face.

Senior members of the Whitehall security establishment are furious at what they see as a crude effort to throw officials under a bus for a scandal entirely of the Prime Minister’s making. 

‘The vetting line’s a red herring,’ one senior Whitehall source told me. ‘There’s only one person to blame for this: Keir Starmer himself’.

In particular, they have reacted with fury to Starmer’s statement at his press conference on Thursday that the vetting process surrounding Mandelson’s appointment needed to be ‘looked at’. 

And they are similarly enraged by what they believe is Starmer’s ‘farcical’ claim to have been misled by Mandelson over the full extent of his ongoing relationship with Epstein.

According to Whitehall sources, Starmer’s defence that he was duped by Mandelson will collapse in the face of new evidence about to be published.

Firstly, they point to the ‘due diligence’ vetting dossier that was created by the Cabinet Office for the Prime Minister. 

According to someone with knowledge of its contents, ‘when that document is published, it will clearly show Starmer was warned about Mandelson and his links to Epstein and was explicitly told their relationship had continued after Epstein was first convicted. 

‘It’s couched in classic Sir Humphrey language – but it’s all there’.

The second issue they pointed to relates to the more comprehensive ‘DV (Developed Vetting)’ process that was conducted to enable Mandelson to gain access to highly confidential government, diplomatic and security service papers.

This process involved a comprehensive check of Mandelson’s finances, family history and contacts, and included a rigorous face-to-face interview. 

Contrary to popular perception, these checks are not conducted by MI5 but by a dedicated department, the UKSV (United Kingdom Security Vetting Agency).

A source told me: ‘This process is run by hard-bitten ex spooks and coppers. 

‘Their primary job is to detect whether someone is lying to them. That’s the biggest red flag of all. 

‘So, this idea Starmer is peddling, that Mandelson successfully pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes, especially when a lot of the information on him was already in the public domain, is ridiculous’.

A third issue relates to the queries that were reportedly made of Mandelson after the initial Cabinet Office dossier was handed to Downing Street. 

According to someone who again has knowledge of the process that was followed, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney was tasked with asking Mandelson three questions, one of which related to claims he had spent time staying in Epstein’s Manhattan apartment.

In answer to reporters’ questions on Thursday, Starmer stated that when questioned, Mandelson had implied the claims were not correct, and he had ‘no reason to disbelieve him’.

This statement has been met with incredulity by Whitehall officials. 

One told me: ‘The Prime Minister was presented with concrete evidence in the due diligence file of Mandelson’s ongoing relationship with Epstein. 

‘But he’s seriously claiming he decided to take Mandelson’s word over the evidence his officials presented to him?’

Another source posed a second, potentially damning, question: ‘If Keir Starmer genuinely wanted to get to the truth about Mandelson and Epstein, why did he send Morgan McSweeney to ask him all the difficult questions?’

McSweeney, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff, is a close personal friend of Mandelson’s, and someone who was pushing hard for his appointment. 

‘If Starmer really wanted the full story, why didn’t he send an independent, experienced member of the Propriety and Ethics Team to interview Mandelson? Why specifically choose one of Mandelson’s best mates?’

The answer to that goes to the heart of this whole affair.

Keir Starmer’s claim yesterday that Mandelson pretended to ‘barely know’ Epstein, and that he had no reason to doubt his response, is literally incredible.

News footage of Mandelson buying clothes with Epstein. Pictures of him sharing a giant birthday cake with Epstein in his Paris flat. Detailed reports specifically stating Epstein maintained ‘a particularly close relationship’ with Mandelson. 

All of these were reportedly contained within documentation specifically produced for, and presented to, Starmer.

What more did Sir Keir want his officials and the security services to do? How much more vetting did this former DPP believe was required before the penny started to drop? 

If the photo of his prospective Ambassador blowing out the candles on a giant gateau with a convicted paedophile didn’t cause him to question Mandelson’s veracity and probity, what would have done? The cabinet Secretary marching Mandelson into Downing Street with a Post-It stuck to his head saying ‘This man has been palling around with the world’s most notorious paedophile!!’?

Britain’s security chiefs know full well what’s going on. In a last desperate attempt to save himself, Keir Starmer is indeed trying to throw them under a bus. 

And given some of the gentlemen involved carry a licence to kill, the Prime Minister is playing a very dangerous game.