PM tells MPs it is ‘staggering’ he was not told Mandelson failed vetting check

Evening Standard

Sir Keir Starmer told MPs it was “staggering” that he was not told Lord Peter Mandelson had failed vetting checks and acknowledged Parliament should have known about it “a long time ago”.The Prime Minister said Foreign Office officials had approved Lord Mandelson’s developed vetting status, enabling him to see secret information as ambassador to the US, despite the recommendation of security experts not to grant clearance.

Transcript

00:17Before Peter Mandelson took up his position as ambassador,

00:22the Foreign Office officials granted him developed vetting clearance

00:26against the specific recommendation of the United Kingdom security vetting

00:33that developed vetting clearance should be denied.

00:38Not only that, the Foreign Office officials who made that decision

00:43did not pass this information to me, to the Foreign Secretary,

00:50to her predecessor, the Deputy Prime Minister, to any other minister,

00:57or even to the former Cabinet Secretary, Sir Chris Walmott.

01:03I found this staggering.

01:20APPLAUSE

01:27Let me be very clear.

01:28If I had been told that Peter Mandelson or anybody else had failed security,

01:35had not been given clearance on security vetting,

01:37I would not have appointed them.

01:40A deliberate decision was taken to withhold that material from me.

01:50A deliberate decision was taken to withhold that material.

01:54This was not a lack of asking.

01:55This wasn't an oversight.

01:56It was a decision taken not to share that information on repeated occasions.

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