UK premier insists 'full due process was followed' in Mandelson appointment amid vetting row

The British prime minister said Wednesday he stands by his previous statement that "full due process was followed" in the appointment of Peter Mandelson as the UK ambassador to US.

The appointment was "a mistake, it was my mistake," Keir Starmer reiterated during the weekly Prime Minister's Questions session in the House of Commons after he was pressed by the main opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch.

"Yes, I do," he replied to a question about whether he stands by his statement that full due process was followed in the Mandelson appointment as ambassador to Washington.

Starmer again apologized to the victims of late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein but denied that his office applied pressure on former Foreign Office chief Olly Robbins about the Mandelson vetting.

Robbins, the most senior official in the Foreign Office, left after a report revealed that Mandelson failed his security vetting clearance before being appointed to Washington, but the office chose to overrule that failure and allow Mandelson to take up his post in the US.

"What I set out to the House on Monday is that Foreign Office officials granted security clearance to Mandelson against the recommendation of UK Security Vetting," said Starmer.

Reiterating the Foreign Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday, in which Robbins gave evidence regarding the security vetting process of the Mandelson appointment, he noted that Robbins made it clear that the appointment decision was not with Starmer or any other ministers.

"That puts to bed all the allegations levelled at me by those opposite," noted the premier, adding Robbins made "a serious error of judgement" by not sharing Mandelson's vetting information with Robbins.

'Nothing is going to distract me from delivering for our country'

Badenoch, however, pointed to a document from November 2024, uncovered by Sky News, which recommended to Starmer that Mandelson be vetted before his choice was announced.

Starmer replied that the former Cabinet secretary reviewed the appointment process and confirmed that the process was correctly followed.

Pressing the premier, the Conservative Party leader asked whether the prime minister would "finally take responsibility and go."

In response, Starmer reiterated that he was not informed about the Foreign Office going against the vetting service's recommendations, which he called a "very serious error of judgment."

"Nothing is going to distract me from delivering for our country," he added.

Mandelson was named ambassador to the US in December 2024 but was sacked in September 2025 after Downing Street said new information about the depth of his relationship with Epstein had emerged.

Starmer has faced calls to resign for allegations that he misled parliament and lawmakers when he claimed that "full due process" was followed during Mandelson’s appointment.