david.terry10

She has issues

I’ve been Foreign Secretary, I’ve done senior ambassadorial appointments. Let me explain why the Mandelson situation is even worse than it first appears. The Foreign Secretary has a huge amount of power when it comes to appointing Heads of Missions. Head of Mission is the general term for Ambassadors, High Commissioners, and Permanent Representatives to international bodies like the UN. Basically the choice of who the top diplomat is in an overseas post is down to the Foreign Secretary. In almost all cases the choice is from a list of career diplomats, who have years (often decades) of experience, have been vetted, and tested by experience, and have previously held junior diplomatic positions around the world. But the Foreign Secretary can choose someone else. Someone without those attributes. Clearly the Foreign Office system doesn’t like it when the FS does this and almost always advises against it. That’s not to say that choosing an outsider is wrong, just that that the FCDO will make it clear that doing so carries additional risks. And those risks sit with the Minister rather than the Department. Obviously I wasn’t involved with any of the conversations about Peter Mandelson but I know the FCDO well and I know the personalities of the people who would have advised David Lammy about this appointment. They would have reminded Lammy that Mandelson had resigned in disgrace twice before. They would have reminded Lammy that Mandelson had a longstanding relationship with Epstein. They would have reminded Lammy that Mandelson had widespread, complicated, and opaque commercial interests. I have no doubt that they would have reminded Lammy that he and the PM were importing significant reputational risk if they appointed Mandelson. I have no doubt they would have unambiguously advised Lammy against appointing Mandelson to the post. And it is now clear that Lammy and Starmer ignored that advice and appointed him anyway. And now we have no ambassador to the USA, a new Foreign Secretary, an imminent state visit, a damaged relationship with the White House, and humiliation for British diplomacy. But most of all we have a number of unanswered questions about what Starmer and Lammy knew, when did they know it, and why they went ahead with Mandelson’s appointment.

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David Lammy Must Also Go. Ministerial responsibility is not a complicated doctrine. It does not require proof of personal involvement. It does not require evidence that a minister gave a direct instruction or attended a specific meeting. It requires only this: that something of consequence happened in a minister's department, on a minister's watch, and that the minister is therefore accountable for it. Something of consequence happened in David Lammy's department. Foreign Office officials used exceptional powers to overrule the security services and grant developed vetting clearance to a man those services had explicitly declined to recommend. That decision was taken inside the Foreign Office. David Lammy was Foreign Secretary. The chain of accountability runs directly to his desk. He has two choices and neither is comfortable. Either he knew the override had taken place, in which case his silence while Keir Starmer told Parliament three times that due process had been followed makes him complicit in that deception. Or he did not know, in which case the most consequential and sensitive decision taken by his department in his tenure was made without his knowledge, which is a failure of ministerial oversight serious enough to warrant resignation on its own terms. There is no third option. No position from which Lammy emerges with his authority intact. Rachel Reeves, speaking in Washington, was careful to distance herself from the affair. Lammy has said nothing. That silence will not protect him. The doctrine that protects ministers from the routine decisions of their officials has never extended to the use of exceptional powers to override the security services on a matter of national sensitivity. This was not routine. Exceptional powers were invoked. Exceptional accountability follows. The Security Services said no. Someone in the Foreign Office said yes. David Lammy was in charge of the Foreign Office. In any serious political culture, that sentence ends his tenure. He should resign.

🔥👇🔥👇🔥👇🔥👇🔥👇🔥 THIS LETTER CONFIRMS the VETTING PROCESS concluded with the PM and @YvetteCooperMP being sent a full conclusion She confirms the process in full in this letter YES THEY SAW IT @Keir_Starmer is OR @YvetteCooperMP is lying committees.parliament.uk/publications/4…

The first scalp or the scapegoat...this wont go away by sacking the civil servant in charge. I am expecting Ollie Robbins phone to be stolen tomorrow.

🚨 REMINDER: Keir Starmer said in February that Peter Mandelson was cleared by security vetting - despite it having failed "Security vetting, carried out independently by the security services, which is an intensive exercise, gave him clearance for the role"

Another devastating line in the Guardian report. "Senior government officials have been considering whether to withhold from parliament documents that would reveal that Mandelson was not given vetting approval from security officials".

Oh

A young Palestinian with special needs was tied to a wall by his Palestinian relatives for petty theft. How can they live with themselves after something like that?

Are we seriously expected to believe that Starmer only found out on TUESDAY, then, not only sat next to Lammy at PMQ’s on Wednesday, said nothing to the House, but also said nothing to Lammy either, & who now claims he only found out TODAY? Absolute nonsense.

There is no way out of this for Starmer. He’s either lied repeatedly. Or he’s is too stupid not to have noticed what his officials were doing without ministerial clearance. Starmer is a liar or an idiot. No other choices. Neither should be prime minister. He has to go. And anyone who defends him now is in the same category and must also go. Preferably to an election. This government is over.

BREAKING: Downing Street says that neither Keir Starmer nor David Lammy knew that Peter Mandelson failed his security vetting - and lays blame with Foreign Office official for overruling the decision.

BREAKING 🚨 I understand that the Prime Minister, has just had his phone stolen. More on this as it develops

🚨BREAKING: Leaders of every single political party are now calling for the resignation of Keir Starmer following his blatant lies over Peter Mandelson. Starmer is finished.

Also makes the disappearance of McSweeney's phone even more interesting 🧐 Oh what a tangled web we weave...

Here’s Starmer saying that Mandelson passed security vetting Turns out this was a downright lie

David Lammy and PM MUST NOW GO, no ifs or buts @AllisonPearson @GBNEWS @MartinDaubney @PatrickChristys @Benleo @beverleyturner @CamillaTominey @GoodwinMJ @Nigel_Farage

Keir Starmer, your deflections and distractions are absurd. Not only were you aware of the issues surrounding Peter Mandelson, you appointed him as US Ambassador despite a failed security clearance. Stop misleading the British public. It’s time to finally come clean.