Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, said that responsibility for hiring Mandelson despite the concerns lay with Keir Starmer<\/a>, saying that \u201cglaring warning signs were wilfully ignored\u201d.<\/p>\n Mandelson at the White House in May 2025 during his time as the UK\u2019s ambassador to the US. He was sacked in September. Photograph: Jim Watson\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n The Guardian\u2019s decision to reveal details of some of the concerns flagged by the vetting agency comes after a powerful parliamentary committee said the government was failing to fully comply<\/a> with a parliamentary motion known as a humble address ordering the release of all papers relating to Mandelson\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n In an extraordinary intervention earlier this month, the intelligence and security committee (ISC) publicly accused the government of withholding some Mandelson vetting documents and implementing redactions \u201cfar too broadly\u201d.<\/p>\n During a debate in parliament last week, MPs from across the political divide criticised<\/a> the Cabinet Office\u2019s handling of the process, warning that public trust was being undermined by ministers who were challenging the sovereignty of parliament. Two MPs openly accused the government of a \u201ccover-up\u201d and one threatened to table a motion holding ministers in contempt.<\/p>\n The second tranche of Mandelson files is expected to be released in June. Ministers have said it will be one of the largest document releases of its kind in history.<\/p>\n However, multiple sources familiar with the Cabinet Office\u2019s work said they believed officials had been heavily redacting and even seeking to withhold files to avoid political embarrassment. One source said UKSV\u2019s nine-page summary, much of which the ISC believes should be released to the public, was due to be withheld by the government in its entirety.<\/p>\n The Guardian\u2019s revelations will put pressure on Starmer\u2019s government to release all relevant files and explain what \u201cmitigations\u201d were put in place to manage the risks in relation to Mandelson, which appear to have been wide-ranging.<\/p>\n Ministers will also be pressed to explain if there was any harm done to national security during the seven months Mandelson was in Washington. Those questions will be most acute in relation to Lan and Deripaska, two senior figures enmeshed in the power structures of hostile states.<\/p>\n Starmer sacked Robbins<\/a> last month after the Guardian revealed<\/a> that Mandelson had been given clearance despite UKSV recommending it should be denied. Starmer said it was \u201cunforgivable\u201d and \u201cstaggering\u201d that the senior civil servant did not tell ministers about the agency\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n Robbins decided to grant Mandelson clearance on 29 January 2025, hours after his department received the UKSV file.<\/p>\n In evidence to MPs last month, Robbins claimed UKSV regarded Mandelson\u2019s case as \u201cborderline\u201d. He repeatedly declined to tell the foreign affairs select committee what concerns UKSV had about Mandelson, although he did say they did not relate to his relationship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the issue that led to Mandelson\u2019s sacking in September 2025.<\/p>\n Mandelson\u2019s security vetting began on 23 December 2024, three days after Starmer announced him as the pick for US ambassador.<\/p>\n The purpose of national security vetting is not to identify wrongdoing by an individual or their associates, and inclusion in a vetting document does not signal misconduct of any kind. Instead, officials gather information and conduct background checks to enable the government to make an \u201cobjective risk assessment\u201d.<\/p>\n Applicants are asked to disclose detailed information, including about personal finances, business connections and associates. Officials in UKSV then identify areas of concern, which can be ranked as low, moderate or high. Multiple sources said those concerns would then be listed in a nine-page UKSV summary file, which concludes with UKSV\u2019s overall concern and a decision or recommendation.<\/p>\n Mandelson\u2019s summary file was completed on 28 January 2025 and sent to the Foreign Office via a \u201csecure portal\u201d the next day at 1.52pm. Hours later, after being briefed on the contents of the summary file by a security official in his department, Robbins decided to grant Mandelson clearance \u2013 with, he has since said, mitigations to manage the risks.<\/p>\n Ties to China\u2019s finance minister<\/p>\n Lan was appointed to the powerful role of finance minister in China in October 2023 after a career in the Guangdong department of finance and a stint as the provincial Communist party leader in Shanxi.<\/p>\n It is not clear how and when Lan and Mandelson became associates. According to sources, UKSV noted that the pair spoke several times a year but had not done so for 12 months before Mandelson\u2019s vetting process began.<\/p>\n Lan Fo\u2019an (second left) looks on as Keir Starmer is presented with flowers on his arrival in Beijing in January. Photograph: WPA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n While the vetting process was under way in January 2025, Mandelson is understood to have received sensitive Foreign Office briefings on China. Philip Barton, Robbins\u2019 predecessor as permanent secretary, told MPs last month that the briefings \u201cmust have included\u201d the UK government\u2019s audit of its policy on China.<\/p>\n Rachel Reeves and Lan Fo\u2019an meeting in Beijing in January last year. Photograph: No 11 crown copyright\/eyevine<\/p>\n Mandelson\u2019s interest in China dates back to his time as an EU trade commissioner, when he made several trips there to negotiate trade policy and tariffs. He also courted China contacts through his now defunct<\/a> lobbying company, Global Counsel, although it is not known whether Mandelson\u2019s relationship with Lan had a commercial dimension.<\/p>\n Since his elevation to finance minister, Lan has played an important role in talks between China and the British government. Lan greeted Starmer on the runway in Beijing in January 2026 as he made the first visit to China by a British prime minister since 2018. Lan held meetings with the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in China in January 2025, when Mandelson\u2019s vetting was ongoing, and again in Washington in April 2025, by which time Mandelson was in post.<\/p>\n The government will now be asked whether Mandelson was involved in any way in those meetings and, if so, how any conflict of interest was disclosed and managed.<\/p>\n Friendship with Russian oligarch<\/p>\n Mandelson\u2019s controversial friendship with Deripaska has been known publicly for almost two decades. It dates back to before a notorious gathering<\/a> on the billionaire\u2019s 73-metre (238ft) yacht off the coast of Corfu in the summer of 2008.<\/p>\n Deripaska, once known as \u201cthe king of aluminium\u201d because of his vast holdings in the metal commodity, is one of Russia\u2019s wealthiest oligarchs.<\/p>\n After the yacht gathering, it was reported that Mandelson was \u201cdripping pure poison\u201d about the then prime minister, Gordon Brown, to another guest of Deripaska, George Osborne, the then shadow chancellor.<\/p>\n Mandelson\u2019s relationship with Deripaska is believed to have begun before the gathering on the yacht and continued long after.<\/p>\n Oleg Deripaska (right) with Vladimir Putin in 2017. Photograph: Mikhail Klimentyev\/AP<\/p>\n Files released by the US Department of Justice show that in 2010 Mandelson sought Deripaska\u2019s help in an attempt to secure a visa for Epstein to travel to Moscow. The emails, first reported by Bloomberg<\/a>, show Mandelson and a Global Counsel colleague referring to Deripaska with codes such as \u201cOD\u201d and \u201cMr D\u201d.<\/p>\n In 2016, Mandelson and Global Counsel helped executives of the taxi-hailing company Uber access Deripaska\u2019s party at the World Economic Forum at Davos, according to a leak to the Guardian of Uber\u2019s files<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2018, the US imposed sanctions<\/a> on Deripaska, citing his close ties to the Russian state and allegations of money laundering, racketeering and extortion, which he denied. After Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Deripaska was hit with sanctions by the EU and UK over his links to Vladimir Putin and his regime.<\/p>\n According to sources, UKSV noted that Mandelson regarded Deripaska as a friend and had remained in occasional contact with him, although the pair had not spoken for about 10 years.<\/p>\n Links to Israeli spy chief and tech firm<\/p>\n Mandelson\u2019s link to Hayman, one of Israel\u2019s former top spy chiefs, was not publicly known. According to sources, UKSV noted that Mandelson spoke with Hayman bimonthly.<\/p>\n As the head of Israel\u2019s military intelligence directorate between 2018 and 2021, Hayman oversaw a powerful apparatus of surveillance, espionage and cyberwarfare. He has previously claimed that on his watch the military intelligence directorate influenced the US\u2019s decision in 2020<\/a> to assassinate the Iranian military commander Qassem Suleimani.<\/p>\n Today, Hayman is the director of the Institute for National Security Studies, an influential security thinktank in Tel Aviv. How Mandelson came to be associated with a former Israeli spymaster is unclear.<\/p>\n The other Israeli connection identified by UKSV relates to Mandelson\u2019s stake in Moon Active, an Israeli company behind a lucrative and widely popular mobile phone game, Coin Master. The company, reported last year to have revenues of more than $2bn, has a reputation in Israel\u2019s tech sector for being secretive.<\/p>\n Mandelson did declare his Moon Active investment in the House of Lords register of interests in July 2019. However, there is no reference in that declaration to a \u00a31m loan used to pay for any shares, an omission that raises questions about whether the disclosure rules were complied with.<\/p>\n UKSV noted that the loan was given to Mandelson by a businessman, according to sources, and was used to acquire shares in the company that were due to be sold in 2026.<\/p>\n It is not known whether Mandelson disclosed the loan, or his associations with Lan, Deripaska and Hayman, in a separate Foreign Office conflict of interest form. The document, which has yet to be made public, requires officials to disclose financial interests and personal relationships that could raise a conflict of interest.<\/p>\n Why we have revealed the vetting details<\/p>\n The Guardian\u2019s decision to publish details of UKSV\u2019s concerns about Mandelson was taken after carefully weighing the public interest case for doing so.<\/p>\n In February, parliament passed the humble address ordering the government to release all papers relating to Mandelson\u2019s appointment. The motion said the most sensitive documents should first be referred to the intelligence and security committee, which would decide whether redactions on grounds of national security or international relations should be made before public release.<\/p>\n However, in the weeks afterwards, there was a debate at the highest levels of officialdom over whether documents about Mandelson\u2019s vetting should be sent to the ISC.<\/p>\n Those discussions have since been confirmed by the Cabinet Office permanent secretary, Cat Little, and Robbins, who told MPs<\/a> he was among those arguing that the files should remain in a \u201chermetically sealed box\u201d for national security reasons.<\/p>\n It was only after the Guardian revealed on 16 April that Mandelson had been given clearance against the advice of UKSV, and Robbins was sacked, that key documents were shared with the committee.<\/p>\n A source familiar with the ISC\u2019s work said \u201ca flood of materials\u201d was released to the committee after the Guardian\u2019s story, including the crucial nine-page UKSV summary file.<\/p>\n The Cabinet Office published a template of that file, while Starmer, addressing parliament, revealed some of the Mandelson file\u2019s contents, noting that UKSV officials had ticked two red boxes to denote \u201chigh\u201d overall concern in relation to Mandelson and a recommendation of \u201cclearance denied\u201d.<\/p>\n A template page from the summary document produced by UKSV after Mandelson\u2019s vetting.<\/p>\n However, there have been growing concerns in recent weeks that the government is still withholding materials it is obliged to release, and indications it may even block the public release of the key summary file.<\/p>\n On 15 May, the nine-person committee of trusted MPs and peers took the highly unusual step of going public with its concerns. It said the government was withholding vetting documents<\/a> despite not having the authority to do so.<\/p>\n During a debate in the House of Commons on 19 May, Jeremy Wright, a KC and former attorney general who serves as the committee\u2019s deputy chair, revealed that ministers were withholding \u201csome documents related to vetting in their entirety\u201d and applying redactions unrelated to national security or international relations, using grounds such as commercial sensitivity of third-party data. He said the issue could pose a challenge to \u201cparliamentary sovereignty\u201d.<\/p>\n Thornberry said in the debate that she shared those concerns. \u201cMy committee and the ISC are trying our best to get to the truth, and we are having obstacles put in our way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Jeremy Wright speaking in the Commons in March. He said the withholding of some documents could pose a challenge to \u2018parliamentary sovereignty\u2019. Photograph: House of Commons\/PA<\/p>\n One government source familiar with the Cabinet Office\u2019s redaction process said officials had been looking for legal arguments that would enable them to abide by the letter of the humble address while \u201cbypassing its spirit\u201d.<\/p>\n![\"Starmer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779895873_727_5500.jpg\")
Starmer says it is \u2018staggering\u2019 and \u2018unforgivable\u2019 he was not told Mandelson failed vetting \u2013\u00a0video<\/p>\n![\"Olly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779895874_454_2560.jpg\")
Olly Robbins describes \u2018constant pressure\u2019 to get Mandelson in post \u2013 video<\/p>\n![\"Top](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779895874_684_2560.jpg\")
Top Cabinet Office official Cat Little says due process was followed in Mandelson vetting \u2013 video<\/p>\n