UPDATE: UK PM says 'unforgivable' not told Mandelson failed vetting

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said it is ‘unforgivable’ that he was not told Lord Peter Mandelson had failed to pass security vetting for the role of ambassador to the US.

The prime minister said he was ‘absolutely furious’ and it was ‘staggering’ that he had not been informed the Foreign Office had overruled the recommendation from specialists in the UK Security Vetting team.

The Foreign Office’s top civil servant, Olly Robbins, was sacked on Thursday night after the prime minister and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper lost confidence in him over the scandal.

Starmer, who is in Paris for a summit on the Iran crisis, said: ‘That I wasn’t told that Peter Mandelson had failed security vetting when he was appointed is staggering.

‘That I wasn’t told that he had failed security vetting when I was telling Parliament that due process had been followed is unforgivable.

‘Not only was I not told, no minister was told, and I’m absolutely furious about that.’

Starmer will face MPs on Monday under pressure from opponents to resign for misleading Parliament about the situation.

By George Thompson in Paris, David Hughes, Christopher McKeon and Izzie Addison, Press Association

source: PA

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