{"id":540669,"date":"2026-04-20T07:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T07:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/540669\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T07:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T07:39:09","slug":"starmer-absolutely-can-survive-mandelson-vetting-row-minister-says-as-pm-prepares-to-face-mps-follow-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/540669\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer &#8216;absolutely&#8217; can survive Mandelson vetting row, minister says, as PM prepares to face MPs &#8211; follow live"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Why did Mandelson fail his vetting?published at 06:42 BST<\/p>\n<p>06:42 BST<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Lord Mandelson has grey hair swept to one side and is wearing glasses and a blue coat\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/27a5ef6f-9b9e-4c16-8d90-250ffcc0e3b5.jpg.webp.webp\"  width=\"6000\" height=\"3375\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Reuters<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">This is one of the questions MPs will be hoping to hear answered.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The remaining documents relating to Lord Mandelson&#8217;s vetting and appointment are set to be released imminently. They were initially withheld on the orders of the Metropolitan Police, which is investigating Lord Mandelson for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cre2yqyex4zo\" class=\"ssrcss-ztter6-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">potential criminal activity<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Lord Mandelson has not responded to requests for comment but the BBC understands his position is that he has not acted in any way criminally and that he was not motivated by financial gain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The documents also need to be inspected by the Intelligence and Security Committee of cross-party MPs, which is trying to balance allowing as much information as possible into the public domain without compromising national security.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Former US ambassador Lord Mandelson shakes hands with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. The two men are wearing dark suits and white shirts and ties as they shake hands.\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/7ef284bb-2bba-4fc4-956a-ad9e92f22e60.jpg.webp.webp\"  width=\"976\" height=\"549\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, ReutersImage caption, <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Former US Ambassador Lord Mandelson pictured shaking hands with President Trump last year in the Oval Office<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In November, the then head of the civil service, Sir Chris Wormald, said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/articles\/cglg63n63wdo\" class=\"ssrcss-ztter6-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lord Mandelson was not formally interviewed<\/a> for the role of US ambassador.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Wormald said Mandelson was not directly asked in person about any conflict of interest, but instead needed to fill in a form aimed more at potential financial conflicts. This process has now been changed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Details of the due diligence checks made before Lord Mandelson&#8217;s appointment, carried out by the Cabinet Office on behalf of Downing Street, are still to emerge.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, Wormald told MPs in November that the document did contain an &#8220;initial assessment&#8221; of mitigations around potential professional or financial relationships and noted the inclusion of &#8220;a general reputational risk&#8221; linked to Epstein.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why did Mandelson fail his vetting?published at 06:42 BST 06:42 BST Image source, Reuters This is one of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-540669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}