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What Starmer said, and didn’t say, in the Commons about the Mandelson saga

timeline of events leading up to [Peter Mandelson](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/peter-mandelson) being refused security vetting

Starmer tells MPs Foreign Office has been stripped of power to overrule vetting

timeline of events that ended up with [the Guardian revealing](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/apr/16/revealed-mandelson-failed-vetting-but-foreign-office-overruled-decision) last week how Mandelson had been initially denied vetting clearance, Starmer began with an acceptance that he had made a grave mistake

Mandelson saga is a messy palaver - and the questions continue to swirl

timeline here, the chain of events and the context of the time. It was [publicly announced](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/appointment-of-lord-mandelson-as-the-next-british-ambassador-to-the-united-states-of-america) that Lord Mandelson would be British Ambassador to the United States five days before Christmas