Starmer ‘not aware’ Foreign Office overruled Mandelson vetting ‘until this week’

Sir Keir Starmer was not aware that the Foreign Office overruled a security vetting process for Lord Peter Mandelson to become UK ambassador to Washington “until earlier this week”, the Government has said.The Foreign Office meanwhile has said it is “working urgently” to comply with a request from the Prime Minister to establish the facts of how developed vetting was granted.It comes after The Guardian reported that security officials initially denied the peer clearance, but the Prime Minister had already named him as Britain’s top diplomat in the US, and the Foreign Office took the rare step of overruling the recommendation.