Andrew Davis

The claim that nobody at the heart of government — ie close to Starmer — knew Mandelson had flunked his security vetting is unravelling at a rate of knots. Starmer’s head of comms was alerted by the media last September. Sources tell me multiple folks in the Cabinet Office (where the UK Security Vetting unit is based) had known for quite some time. Cat Little, Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary, even had a copy of the UK Sec Vet January 2025 document concluding Mandelson was unfit to be US ambassador. She informed the new cabinet secretary Antonia Romeo. Soon there were about a dozen lawyers and officials crawling all over it. Such matters don’t stay secret for long in the upper echelons of Whitehall. But it seems the PM was still in the dark … until last Tuesday. Mmmmmm

We now have the Government response: Neither the PM nor 10 Downing Street nor the Cabinet Office knew the Foreign Office had decided to ignore the fact Mandelson had failed his security vetting. Call it the ‘know-nothing’ government. But it leaves a major question unanswered: why would the FO take it on itself to make such a huge judgement call — and not inform/consult Downing Street? What was in it for the FO? It hadn’t even necessarily wanted Mandy, unlike Starmer and the 10 Downing Street operation. Doesn’t add up.

BREAKING NEWS (with the potential to be massive): The Guardian reveals Peter Mandelson failed advanced security vetting before becoming US ambassador. He was initially denied developed vetting clearance in January 2025 - weeks after Keir Starmer had officially announced his appointment. Foreign Office was ‘encouraged’ to deploy a rarely-used power to override the recommendation from security officials. The Government promised total transparency on the Mandelson affair after MPs forced it to release of a batch of documents about the process. But nothing it has released reveals this startling fact. Indeed, Starmer has always insisted Mandelson was subject to 'security vetting, carried out independently by the security services, which is an intensive exercise that gave him clearance for the role'. Developing …