00:02Thank you, Mr Speaker. With permission, before I go into the details, I want to be very clear
00:08with this House that while this statement will focus on the process surrounding Peter
00:15Mandelson's vetting and appointment, at the heart of this, there is also a judgment I
00:20made that was wrong. I should not have appointed Peter Mandelson. I take responsibility for
00:27that decision, and I apologise again to the victims of the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein,
00:32who were clearly failed by my decision.
00:37Mr Speaker, last Tuesday evening, the 14th of April, I found out for the first time that
00:45on the 29th of January 2025, before Peter Mandelson took up his position as ambassador, the Foreign
00:54Office officials granted him developed vetting clearance against the specific recommendation
01:01of the United Kingdom security vetting that developed vetting clearance should be denied.
01:09Not only that, the Foreign Office officials who made that decision did not pass this information
01:17to me, to the Foreign Secretary, to her predecessor, the Deputy Prime Minister, to any other Minister,
01:28or even to the former Cabinet Secretary, Sir Chris Wormald.
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