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Conservative shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart said he thought Keir Starmer and his team were \u201cin the wrong\u201d more than Sir Olly Robbins.<\/p>\n
Burghart told BBC One he was still waiting to hear all of the facts, but said: \u201cI think there\u2019s one person responsible for everything that\u2019s happened and that\u2019s the prime minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the prime minister\u2019s decision to appoint Peter Mandelson to the most sensitive diplomatic posting we have, and we now know that he appointed someone who was a security risk to do that very sensitive job, and ultimately responsibility has to lie with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWhat I\u2019m certain of is that the person who is responsible for what has happened has not taken responsibility for it, and it\u2019s about time that he did.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Tory frontbencher continued: \u201cWe know that the prime minister was in possession of enough facts when he made the appointment, that he should not have made it, and he will not take responsibility for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody else is being thrown under the bus. He\u2019s lost his chief of staff, he\u2019s lost his head of comms, he\u2019s lost the cabinet secretary, he\u2019s now lost the head of the Foreign Office, why will the prime minister not take responsibility?\u201d<\/p>\n
Share<\/a><\/p>\n Robert Jenrick has also defended his colleague, Reform\u2019s business and energy spokesperson Richard Tice over reports he failed to pay almost \u00a3100,000 in corporation tax to the benefit of his investment company<\/a>, which in turn made donations to Reform UK.<\/p>\n Jenrick told the BBC that he believed Tice had followed advice, and repeated Tice\u2019s claim he may have paid too much in tax.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cRichard is a very successful businessman, he has had a 40-year business career, he\u2019s created thousands of jobs, he\u2019s paid millions of pounds in tax.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cRichard has taken advice, he believes he has paid the tax he should have paid, in fact he believes he may have overpaid tax because he paid it through his personal taxation rather than through the company.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it transpires that he\u2019s underpaid tax, of course he\u2019ll settle it. But that is not his position, he thinks he has paid the right tax, and that\u2019s absolutely right.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Robert Jenrick said Keir Starmer is \u201ctotally unfit\u201d to run the country and has \u201cterrible judgement\u201d.<\/p>\n Reform UK\u2019s finance spokesperson, who defected to the party from the Conservatives earlier this year, said he didn\u2019t know whether Starmer had lied over the Mandelson affair.<\/p>\n However he repeatedly refused to back up his party\u2019s leader Nigel Farage who said Keir Starmer had lied over Mandelson\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n Jenrick said: \u201cI don\u2019t know whether Keir Starmer is a liar or just grossly incompetent. What I do know is that he is totally unfit to lead this country, to tackle the big challenges that it\u2019s facing.\u201d<\/p>\n He said the focus on Mandelson\u2019s appointment and vetting was a distraction from other issues.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cHis judgement is terrible, and he\u2019s so distracted from what really matters to people out in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cI don\u2019t know if he\u2019s a liar or not. What I\u2019m saying is it doesn\u2019t actually matter, I don\u2019t want the prime minister to be a liar, but I don\u2019t want Keir Starmer to be our prime minister because what really matters to the public, is someone leading this country who is focused on the issues facing the people of the country.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey has indicated Keir Starmer\u2019s mishandling of the economy and the Peter Mandelson saga risks leading Nigel Farage to become prime minister.<\/p>\n Davey told Sky News\u2019s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips that Starmer should \u201cmove aside\u201d if he wants the Labour<\/a> party to succeed.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThe thing that I think Labour MPs should think about quite carefully now is their Government has been a bit of a failure, frankly, on the economy, on so much, and it\u2019s in chaos, in the way that Conservatives were in chaos, in perpetual crisis, and I don\u2019t think they can get out of that unless Keir Starmer moves aside.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if they don\u2019t, there\u2019s a real danger they\u2019re handing the keys to Number 10 to Nigel Farage, who can benefit from this chaos.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I would really say to Labour MPs, who in many ways, have the future of the prime minister in their hands, that they really now have to accept, the prime minister is a big part of their own problem and in the context of the threat that Nigel Farage poses to our democracy and to our country with his divisive Trump-like politics, I think the Labour party has to realise they have to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Away from the Mandelson saga, Liz Kendall was speaking about her day job as science and technology secretary and indicated the government may get social media firms to change addictive features on apps.<\/p>\n Kendall told Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC of her horror of finding out her average daily mobile phone use is just over five hours, which is probably something we can all relate to.<\/p>\n She was asked whether the government was considering restrictions on features like infinite scrolling, where endless content will come up on apps which can contribute to its addictive nature.<\/p>\n She also said the effectiveness of age limits needed to be looked at, and whether stricter \u201chighly-effective age verification measures\u201d would be needed to access social media.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cThis is precisely what the consultation has been looking at. Not just the issue of should we raise the limit of the age, so you can\u2019t have social media if you\u2019re under 16.<\/p>\n \u201cBut crucially, and I think this is actually much broader than what\u2019s happened in Australia or other countries, is to look at the root cause of parents\u2019 concerns, which is the addictive nature, the doomscrolling, whether there should be curfews overnight, and whether there should be restrictions or age-limits on all of those fundamental features.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cThe issue is not, let\u2019s be clear, not if we\u2019re going to act, but how.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Keir Starmer would have withdrawn Peter Mandelson\u2019s appointment as ambassador to the US if he had known he had not passed security vetting, Liz Kendall said, even if it was close to Donald Trump\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n Kendall told Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One that Starmer would have rescinded the job offer if he had been told \u2013 regardless of the timing ahead of Trump taking up the presidency.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cIf the prime minister had known that UK security vetting had not cleared him, the appointment would have been withdrawn.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would\u2019t have mattered how close that was to the president\u2019s inauguration or any of that, I believe that because there is no way that the prime minister would have continued with it, had he known the facts that he now knows.\u201d<\/p>\n Liz Kendall appearing on the BBC1 current affairs programme, Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg Photograph: Jeff Overs\/BBC\/PAShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a004.40 EDT<\/p>\n Liz Kendall said Keir Starmer should not lose his job over Peter Mandelson\u2019s appointment as US ambassador because he has \u201cmade the right calls\u201d on the big issues facing the country.<\/p>\n The science and technology secretary was asked by Trevor Phillips on Sky if Starmer\u2019s poor judgment in appointing Mandelson was the root of the issue.<\/p>\n She replied: \u201cI don\u2019t agree with that. I think the failure of judgment here was the failure to tell the prime minister that Peter Mandelson, who actually is responsible for all of this \u2026 the person that I am angry at is Peter Mandelson.\u201d<\/p>\n Kendall went on to say Starmer had \u201cabsolutely not\u201d ignored Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s victims by making the appointment, and said she supported him in the decisions he had made over many big issues.<\/p>\n She said: \u201cThe prime minister, on the big calls facing this country, has made the right calls.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cBecause on the fundamental judgments facing this country, whether it\u2019s on international issues, rebuilding our relationship with the EU, saying \u2018we won\u2019t get involved in the war\u2019, investing in our defence, or whether it\u2019s on domestic issues, lifting children out of poverty, tackling violence against women and girls, all of the big fundamental issues facing this country, the prime minister has made the right call.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Liz Kendall has repeated David Lammy\u2019s claim the prime minister would have stopped Peter Mandelson\u2019s appointment if he had known the peer had failed security vetting.<\/p>\n Speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sky News on Sunday, the science and technology said Keir Starmer was a \u201cman of integrity\u201d.<\/p>\n She \u201ccompletely refuted\u201d that Starmer would do anything to put the UK at risk.<\/p>\n Kendall said: \u201cHe is a man of integrity and there is no way he would have proceeded with that, whatever the so-called embarrassment. He would have thought that was wrong, and he would not have done.\u201d<\/p>\n She had earlier said Sir Olly Robbins was \u201cwrong\u201d not to tell Starmer or the foreign secretary, that UK security vetting had advised against the appointment and the issue was a \u201cserious mistake\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that was wrong at the start, and then subsequently wrong because as you well know Trevor, the prime minister and ministers made a series of statements in parliament about this about it. I think that was a failure, and that\u2019s why he lost the confidence of the prime minister and foreign secretary,\u201d Kendall said.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a003.55 EDT<\/p>\n Cabinet minister to speak to broadcasters<\/p>\n Keir Starmer faces yet another difficult day as prime minister as questions about his leadership swirl caused by the Peter Mandelson saga this morning, although his cabinet colleagues are rallying around him.<\/p>\n Starmer\u2019s science and technology secretary, Liz Kendall, will speak to the BBC this morning as the fallout from Mandelson\u2019s appointment as ambassador to the US continues.<\/p>\n The deputy prime minister David Lammy said on Saturday that Starmer would have stopped Mandelson from taking up the role if he had known he had failed security vetting.<\/a> He is among numerous ministers who have spoken out in support of the prime minister since the news on Thursday that Mandelson had not passed the security checks process.<\/p>\n Last night the Sunday Times reported the reason Mandelson failed the vetting was because the biggest client of his lobbying firm, Global Counsel, was a firm linked to the Chinese military<\/a>.<\/p>\n Starmer has faced renewed calls to resign from opponents since the latest development was reported, and the pressure is expected to continue with Reform UK\u2019s finance spokesperson Robert Jenrick, and Conservative shadow minister Alex Burghart are due to speak to the BBC this morning.<\/p>\n We\u2019ll bring you the latest lines here.<\/p>\n