‘Cover up’: Starmer blames vetting amid process questions on Mandelson
Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman has blamed the vetting process inherited from previous governments for Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment despite accusations that the Prime Minister did not follow ministerial procedures and oversaw a “cover up”.
Starmer’s spokesman said the government was looking to reform the due diligence process and national security vetting procedure for major appointments.
But details in the Mandelson files, which were released on Wednesday, have raised questions among some former ministers on whether Starmer followed existing process correctly.
The files showed that Mandelson had access to classified information before his security clearance was given by Whitehall officials.
Advice said Mandelson shared a “particularly close” relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and noted he had stayed at the paedophile’s house after his first conviction.
They also showed that Starmer did not fill out a box responding to advice, which Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has said was essential for ministers to fill.
Badenoch told broadcasters on Thursday morning: “I’ve been a minister and a secretary of state, the comments which Starmer would have put on the box notes – those are the cover notes where you explain what you want to happen – are missing.
“They have been removed. We need the full details of what the Prime Minister did. There is still a cover up going on.
“It is very clear that he told lie after lie after lie about the appointment of Peter Mandelson.”
Starmer’s spokesman said that the advice produced by Whitehall officials was acknowledged by the Prime Minister.
Questions put to Mandelson on the terms of his relationship with Epstein by government officials during the vetting process have not been published by the government due to an ongoing police investigation.
“The Prime Minister did read the advice but clearly there are lessons to be learned,” the spokesman said when asked about why boxes were not filled.
Starmer ‘rushed’ appointment
The tranche of documents also revealed that Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser, warned the process was “weirdly rushed” and “unusual”.
Starmer has held that the “full due process” was followed while his spokesman emphasised that the Prime Minister has apologised for making the appointment.
He also maintained he sacked Mandelson in November, around the time a fresh batch of Epstein files were released in the US, because he did not know the “depth and extent” of the relationship with Epstein.
Cabinet office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said in the morning that the due diligence report on Mandelson, released publicly on Wednesday, raised “serious questions” though the former ambassador “misled” the Prime Minister.
Several thousands of documents on Mandelson are still to be published over the coming months after MPs managed to force the government to release files around the appointment.