Zürcher Nachrichten - UK PM denies misleading MPs, says officials hid Mandelson info

Starmer, who is struggling to contain the fallout over his decision to name Mandelson to the coveted post, admitted he had been wrong to appoint the 72-year-old to the job.

Mandelson was already a known associate of late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and had twice had to resign from earlier Labour government posts.

Addressing parliament again about the deepening political row, Starmer said: "At the heart of this, there is also a judgment I made that was wrong. I should not have appointed Peter Mandelson."

The scandal has threatened to bring down the British Prime Minister, who faced fresh calls to quit last week after it was revealed that Mandelson had failed security checks.

Already unpopular with the public and some Labour MPs, Starmer has insisted he and other ministers had not been told until last week that the Mandelson's security approval had been declined.

"It beggars belief that throughout the whole timeline of events, officials in the Foreign Office saw fit to withhold this information from the most senior ministers in our system, in government," he told MPs.

The information about Mandelson's failed security vetting had been withheld from him, he said.

"I was not provided with information I should have been provided with. Had I been provided, I wouldn't have made the decision. It was a deliberate decision. It wasn't negligence. It was a deliberate decision not to tell me."

Two lawmakers -- one from the left-wing Your Party and another from the far-right Reform UK, were removed from the session for accusing Starmer of lying over the issue and refusing to withdraw their statements.

"He is gaslighting the nation. So let's call this out for what it is. The prime minister is a bare-faced liar," said left-winger Zarah Sultana before being ordered out by the speaker.

- 'Unconventional' -

Last Thursday, Starmer sacked the Foreign Office's top civil servant, Olly Robins, telling MPs he had also now set in motion a review of the security vetting process.

But former civil servants have accused Starmer of scapegoating Robbins, who will give his own account to a parliamentary watchdog committee on Tuesday.

Opposition leaders have called for the centre-left Labour leader to step down, with accusations ranging from incompetence to the wilful misleading of parliamentarians and the public.

Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch argued it was "time for the truth", claiming the government's story about what happened has "murkier and more contradictory".

"We still do not know exactly why Peter Mandelson failed that vetting," she told parliament.

She and Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey again called for Starmer to resign.

Davey said the prime minister had made "a catastrophic error of judgment, and now that it's blown up in his face, the only decent thing to do is to take responsibility".

Senior ministers have however so far rallied around Starmer.

"A judgment was made that the Trump administration was an unconventional administration and an unconventional ambassador could do a job for the United Kingdom," Scotland Secretary Douglas Alexander said Monday.

- 'He has to go' -

Other ministers have argued that Starmer should remain in power amid the global tumult sparked by the Middle East war.

But polls suggest Starmer is one of Britain's most unpopular prime ministers ever.

If Starmer had known about the failed vetting "then he has to go, he has to resign", retired dentist Andrews Connell, 59, told AFP.

But retiree Duncan Moss, 67, said he would be "very worried if Starmer was to leave ... I think he's doing a very good job."

Starmer sacked Mandelson in September 2025, seven months after he took up the post, after new details emerged about the depth of the ex-envoy's ties to Epstein, who died in a US prison in 2019 while facing sex-trafficking charges.

UK police are investigating allegations of misconduct in office by Mandelson, when he was a Labour minister more than 15 years ago.

Starmer and his Labour party are also bracing for a chastening set of local elections next month, including in the devolved Scottish and Welsh parliaments.

L.Muratori--NZN