28 resultsfor “what happened with Mandelson's vetting for ambassador”
ambassador [Peter Mandelson](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/peter-mandelson) had not passed UK security vetting. There is strong support for Robbins within Whitehall, with senior civil servants said to believe he was in effect sacked for doing what
vetting process, insisting he would never have appointed Mandelson had he known, and says that the correct hiring process was followed. But many MPs are not so sure. The leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch
ambassador – but was ignored. Robbins overturned the United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKVS) decision to fail Mandelson just 24 hours later, giving little time for any potential mitigations to be put in place. The Foreign Office
ambassador to the US two months earlier, after the disclosure of Jeffrey Epstein’s emails. MPs on the cross-party foreign affairs select committee were grilling the most senior civil servants involved in Mandelson
ambassador would not have been committed. But [what he did not deliver](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/20/what-starmer-said-and-didnt-say-in-the-commons-about-the-mandelson-saga) was any admission that he had inadvertently misled the House of Commons. That seemed too painful an admission for Starmer
ambassador without the Foreign Office revealing it had overruled the decision to fail his vetting. The scandal, [first revealed by the Guardian last week](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/16/revealed-mandelson-failed-vetting-but-foreign-office-overruled-decision), has already led to the sacking
ambassador to the US, and the subsequent sacking of senior civil servant, Sir Olly Robbins, in a row over security vetting. So the question being asked around Westminster is not 'should there be a Labour
ambassador. In recent weeks several Labour ministers have [played down](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/mar/26/wes-streeting-says-he-does-not-want-keir-starmer-ousted) the possibility of Starmer being removed because of any poor performance in the local elections, citing the international crisis over the Iran