Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 7 hours ago
Sir Keir Starmer says he is 'furious' about failings in the vetting procedure for Lord Mandelson, which he describes as 'unaccceptable', but insists he had no knowledge of it before appointing the Labour peer to be the UK’s ambassador to the United States. Report by Johals. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

Category

🗞
News
Transcript
00:00Minister, politicians resign when they mislead the public and mislead Parliament.
00:03Are you considering your position?
00:05That I wasn't told that Peter Mandelson had failed security vetting when he's appointed is staggering.
00:13That I wasn't told that he'd failed security vetting when I was telling Parliament that due process had been followed
00:21is unforgivable.
00:23Not only was I not told, no minister was told.
00:27And I'm absolutely furious about that.
00:30What I intend to do is to go to Parliament on Monday to set out all the relevant facts in
00:36true transparency so Parliament has the full picture.
00:40Prime Minister, why do you always end up sounding like the passenger in this government rather than the driver?
00:45Are you really expecting us to believe that a senior civil servant, off his own back, without any sort of
00:52direction about the importance of Peter Mandelson being ambassador, unilaterally overruled security vetting to approve a political appointment?
01:00And they made clear it was political.
01:02I was not told that he had failed security vetting.
01:07No minister was told that he'd failed security vetting.
01:10Number 10 wasn't told that he'd failed security vetting.
01:14That is completely unacceptable.
01:17That is why I intend to go to Parliament and set out all of the relevant facts so Parliament has
01:22full transparency and full accountability.
01:25It is totally unacceptable that the Prime Minister making an appointment is not told that security vetting has been failed.
01:34Totally unacceptable.
01:35You're almost two years in post.
01:36Doesn't this just sound like you don't have a grip on your government?
01:38I was not told that security vetting had failed.
01:43That is shocking.
01:45It is unacceptable.
01:46And I intend to set out the full facts to Parliament on Monday.
Comments

Recommended