To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
A senior government minister has said the Prime Minister will not resign after it emerged that Lord Peter Mandelson failed a vetting process before being appointed US ambassador.
Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister Darren Jones said Sir Keir Starmer has not considered resigning over the appointment of Lord Mandelson.
Last night it emerged security officials initially denied Mandelson clearance, but Foreign Office officials took the rare step of overruling the recommendation.
The Prime Minister was not aware that the former Labour government minister was given the developed vetting against the advice of UK Security Vetting until earlier this week, the Government has said.
Downing Street sources said Sir Keir was ‘furious’ by the news.
Last night, the Foreign Office’s top civil servant Sir Olly Robbins was effectively sacked after the revelation.
Want to understand more about how politics affects your life?
Metro’s senior politics reporter Craig Munro breaks down all the chaos into easy to follow insight, in Metro‘s politics newsletter Alright, Gov? Sent every Wednesday. Sign up here.
Asked on BBC Breakfast whether the Prime Minister is going to resign, and whether he has either knowingly or unknowingly misled Parliament, Mr Jones responded ‘No’.
He said: ‘No (the Prime Minister did not mislead Parliament), because what I’ve just explained to you is the process that existed until I changed it last night.’
He added Sir Keir was ‘furious with the state’ because the Foreign Office was able to overrule the vetting process for Lord Peter Mandelson.
He said he had ordered an urgent review after discovering that the Foreign Office and other Government departments the right to ignore security advice when appointing people to sensitive roles.
He told Sky News: ‘It is utterly unacceptable, not just in the individual case of Peter Mandelson and respect of the Prime Minister’s fury at the Foreign Office for not having taught him this information, but the very fact that their processes were in place that allow for that to happen in the first place.
‘That’s why in my role in the Cabinet Office, immediately last night, I suspended the rights for these organisations to make these judgments.
‘I’ve asked for an urgent review about what decisions these organisations have taken in the past to overrule the recommendations from UK security vetting, and I was due to announce a broader, independent review of the vetting process anyway. And this will now be part of that.’
Mandelson was sacked by Starmer from his post as US ambassador last September after his messages in a birthday book for the disgrace child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were revealed.
In the book, Mandelson described the New York financier as his ‘best pal’ and signed off by saying: ‘We love you!’
In January, the US Department of Justice published a tranche of the Epstein files, which included dozens of emails detailing the pair’s extensive friendship prior and post Epstein’s convictions.
London’s Met Police later launched an investigation following allegations he leaked sensitive information to Epstein while he was a member of the government.
He was subsequently arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office and has since been bailed.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.