UK PM Starmer faces more pressure over Mandelson appointment
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff said Tuesday that he made a “serious mistake” by recommending Peter Mandelson be made UK ambassador to the United States, but denied interfering with the appointment process.
Morgan McSweeney told lawmakers on the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee that it had been “a serious error of judgment” to back Mandelson.
The committee is investigating how Mandelson, a scandal-tainted friend of Jeffrey Epstein, was given the key diplomatic job despite failing security checks.
McSweeney said that “the prime minister relied on my advice, and I got it wrong.”
He apologised to Epstein’s victims, saying, “I am sorry for any part this controversy has played in causing further hurt or distress.”
McSweeney’s testimony came as Starmer faced more heat Tuesday over the appointment, with lawmakers set to vote on whether the UK leader should be investigated by a parliamentary standards watchdog over the ill-fated decision.
The testimony came before the whole House of Commons debates a demand by the opposition Conservative Party for Parliament’s Privileges Committee to investigate Starmer’s explanations of how Mandelson came to be appointed.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said that Starmer had “misled the House of Commons repeatedly” when he said that “full due process” was followed over Mandelson’s appointment.
A finding by the committee that Starmer misled Parliament would likely be a resigning offence.
Even if lawmakers don’t back the call for an inquiry, it’s a potentially dangerous day for Starmer, who has spent weeks fending off calls to resign over the Mandelson saga.
Starmer fired Mandelson in September after new details emerged about the ambassador’s friendship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.
Police opened an investigation into Mandelson in February over allegations that he passed on sensitive Government information to Epstein when he was a member of the UK Government in 2009.
