DAN HODGES: Peter Mandelson labored on the board of a agency ‘riddled with Putin’s brokers’. And Starmer knew it

Today Keir Starmer faces his reckoning. In full view of Parliament and the country, he will finally have to explain how and why he forced through Peter Mandelson’s appointment as Washington Ambassador, even though the security services had specifically warned that he represented a major national security risk.

Starmer’s defence, according to the hapless allies he dispatched on the Sunday media round, will be simple: ‘I didn’t know. No one told me.’

But as we can reveal today, that claim will be just another lie. Because Keir Starmer knew only too well his choice for ambassador was tainted not just by his connection with notorious paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, but also hostile foreign states and their security services.

In 2013, Mandelson was appointed as non-executive director to the board of a Russian company called Sistema. It was the majority shareholder of another Russian company, RTI Systems, one of the country’s largest defence contractors. Among the products it made were drones and their radar systems.

Mandelson was reportedly paid £200,000 a year for his directorship. In addition, he was gifted a significant Sistema shareholding. He was also appointed to the company’s audit committee.

In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea. Mandelson faced calls to divest himself of his interest in the company. But he refused. Instead, he continued to work actively in its interests. So actively, that in 2017 he wrote to Vladimir Putin on the company’s behalf, asking him to intercede over a legal issue.

Mandelson retained his interests in Sistema till 2020. But his own company, Global Counsel, continued to do major business with Russia. Yesterday I was contacted by a security source who told me that ‘at the time Peter was on the board, Sistema was riddled with Russian intelligence officers. He was basically swimming in a sea of Russian spies’.

He repeatedly swam with them. As The Mail on Sunday reported yesterday, Mandelson was targeted so heavily by Russian intelligence he was formally warned by both British and EU intelligence officials about his business relationships while still working as EU Trade Commissioner.

Starmer cannot claim ignorance over Mandelson’s links to Russia, says Dan Hodges

Yet despite all this, as we now know, Keir Starmer insisted on appointing him to the most sensitive post in the British diplomatic service. One in which he did not simply have access to highly classified intelligence gathered by our security services, but also intelligence shared by the Americans, and other key allies.

Reflect on this. Keir Starmer is insisting he is the person to protect British national interests at a time of unprecedented global danger. Yet he chose as his US Ambassador a man who served on the board of a Russian company riddled with Putin’s agents, that was manufacturing drones. He also retained his interest in that company even after Putin’s gorillas had marched into Ukraine.

And on this, Starmer cannot claim ignorance. Mandelson’s links to Sistema were included in the Cabinet Office Due Diligence Checklist that was forwarded to the Prime Minister prior to Mandelson’s appointment. And which is one of the few important documents related to this whole sorry affair that Starmer has admitted he did actually read.

Yesterday it was reported that Mandelson did not fail his vetting because of his relationship with Epstein, but because of ‘the Peer’s foreign links’. And those links were a matter of public record.

Mandelson’s lobbying on behalf of China was also included in the Cabinet Office briefing sent to and read by Sir Keir. As was a November 2024 Daily Mail article by my colleague Andrew Pierce detailing his Sistema links. Additional newspaper articles reporting Mandelson’s connection with the company were also published in May 2013, April 2014, September 2014 and August 2017.

So the idea that Starmer is currently being blind-sided by the revelation his former colleague had dubious financial links to foreign companies and states hostile to the UK is unsustainable. Those links were literally included in the briefing documents presented to him before Mandelson was packed off to Washington.

So the question Starmer must answer today is this: why did he ignore all the red flags? It’s a matter of public record that Foreign Office officials warned him. His Foreign Secretary has claimed he warned him. Documents released to MPs show his National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell warned him. And those warnings were echoed by the security services who believed Mandelson represented such a major security risk they refused to grant him even basic clearance as ambassador.

Keir Starmer will today try to hide behind process and officials. But we can see the truth. Mandelson was a national security and blackmail accident waiting to happen. The Prime Minister knew it, and appointed him anyway.

‘No one told me,’ he will protest today. No, Sir Keir, they did. You simply chose not to hear them.