UK PM Starmer admits Mandelson mistake, rejects resignation calls

United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer has admitted he was wrong to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington, but rejected mounting calls to resign.

Starmer told the UK Parliament on Monday that, while the appointment was a mistake, he would have withdrawn the decision had he known the Foreign Office had overruled security officials’ recommendations not to give the job to Mandelson, whose friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was long known.

The British leader again rejected calls for his resignation over the botched vetting process. Those calls have mounted as the issue has developed into a major scandal.

The premier denied misleading parliament and placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Foreign Office, saying that it beggared belief that officials “saw fit to withhold this information from the most senior ministers in our system”.

“That is not how the vast majority of people in this country expect politics, government or accountability to work,” Starmer said, adding that it was “frankly staggering” he had not been told about Mandelson’s failure to gain security clearance, to the sound of jeers from opposition lawmakers.

“It doesn’t appear that he asked any questions at all. Why? Because he didn’t want to know,” Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said.

Questions over PM’s judgement

The fiasco has raised doubts about Starmer’s judgement, with the beleaguered prime minister claiming he only found out about the overruling of the vetting decision last week.

Starmer has repeatedly insisted that “due process” was followed in the appointment, which was announced in December 2024, with Mandelson taking up the post in February 2025.

The Labour Party grandee was sacked just seven months later, after documents released by a United States Congressional committee revealed new details about the depth of his ties to financier Epstein.

The storm erupted after UK newspaper The Guardian published revelations on the vetting process on Thursday, with top Foreign Office civil servant Olly Robbins ousted on the same day.

Badenoch slammed Starmer for failing to take responsibility. “It is how you face up to those mistakes that shows the character of a leader,” she told Parliament, saying he had thrown government officials “under the bus”.

The scandal over Mandelson’s relationship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, has already forced the resignation of Starmer’s former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney.

The resurgence of the scandal comes three weeks before local elections in which Labour is expected to suffer heavy losses.