British Prime Minister Keir Starmer leaves 10 Downing Street in London, Monday, April 20, 2026 to face a showdown in Parliament over the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington. (AP Photo/Alistair Grant)
The former civil servant who oversaw the approval of Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to Washington said he felt “political pressure” to speed up the decision despite “security concerns”.
“Prime Minister Keir Starmer sacked Olly Robins, the former head of the Foreign Office, last week amid a widening scandal that has led to calls for the prime minister’s resignation. Mandelson was removed from his position in September last year, after just nine months on the job, after more details emerged about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted US sex offender who died in prison in 2019.“There was an atmosphere of pressure from the Prime Minister’s Office and a very strong expectation that Mandelson needed to be in office and in America as quickly as possible,” Robbins told the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday, a day after MPs grilled Starmer on how the appointment was approved.He added: “There was a generally dismissive attitude toward the security vetting process.”Robbins also stated that the vetting agency considered Mandelson a “border issue” and was “inclined to recommend against” granting him a security clearance. However, the State Department gave the permit anyway.He explained that “security concerns” were not related to Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein.
He also declined to say when lawmakers asked him what prompted the government auditing agency to classify Mandelson as a potential security risk.For his part, Starmer acknowledged that the appointment was a “mistake” and said he would have reconsidered it if he had been aware of the audit concerns. But he placed the responsibility on State Department officials, accusing them of failing to inform him of the issues and proceeding with the approval despite them.He described it as “frankly astonishing” that he had not been told about the botched security check in January 2025, insisting he only learned about it last week.(with AP input)
