Keir Starmer to deal with nation about future amid mounting sack calls over safety blunder
Starmer faces calls to quit over a security blunder as he prepares to tell MPs why the Foreign Office ignored warnings not to give an ambassadorial role to Peter Mandelson
Keir Starmer will haul himself before the House of Commons on Monday(Image: Xinhua/Shutterstock)
Keir Starmer is fighting for his political life as he prepares a high-stakes address to the nation following a security scandal that has rocked Downing Street. The Prime Minister will haul himself before the House of Commons on Monday for a career-defining statement regarding the vetting of Lord Peter Mandelson.
The move comes as opposition leaders smell blood, accusing the PM of “deliberate dishonesty” over the appointment of the disgraced peer as UK Ambassador to the US.
The government has been plunged into total chaos after it emerged that the Foreign Office effectively ignored warnings from spooks. Security experts reportedly recommended that Mandelson should not be cleared for the top-level role.
However, it was revealed this week that civil service bigwigs overruled that advice in a move that has left Westminster reeling.
Top mandarin Sir Olly Robbins has already been axed after the PM and the Foreign Secretary lost all confidence in the Foreign Office chief.
The Prime Minister’s right-hand man, Darren Jones, went did the media rounds this morning to insist Starmer isn’t going anywhere, despite admitting the PM is “furious” about being kept in the dark.
Speaking to LBC, Jones said: “Given the nature of the problem here…it’s of a scale of a problem that we’ve not experienced in government before. It is beyond unacceptable.”
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that while the PM previously assured MPs “due process” was followed, the reality was a “shocking” loophole.
Jones said: “The fact that due process involved the right for the Foreign Office to ignore the recommendation of the security vetting team is astonishing.”
But the PM’s defence has been torn to shreds by his rivals. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch didn’t hold back, branding Starmer a liar.
She told the BBC: “What we have seen is deliberate dishonesty. It doesn’t matter which of these stories the Prime Minister has told us, he has lied, and that is resignation time.
“It is utterly preposterous that…he, the chief prosecutor, didn’t ask what happened with the security vetting – it just doesn’t add up.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey joined the chorus of calls for Starmer to pack his bags, saying: “Keir Starmer had already made a catastrophic error of judgment. Now it looks as though he has also misled Parliament and lied to the British public. If that is the case, he must go.”
The scandal is the final nail in the coffin for the Mandelson appointment. The Labour grandee was already sacked from the Washington position last September after his murky ties to billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein came back to haunt him.
It has now emerged that Starmer was warned of “reputational risk” regarding Epstein before the appointment.
It has also been reported that Mandelson failed the deep-dive “Developed Vetting” (DV) which probes sexual, financial, and personal secrets, but the Foreign Office allegedly pushed the appointment through anyway.
Jones has now suspended the right for departments to overrule security experts, but whether Starmer’s leadership survives beyond Monday’s address remains to be seen.
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