BRITISH PRIME MINISTER Keir Starmer is back in hot water as he is set to face more questions over Peter Mandelson’s vetting this afternoon.

Details emerged last week that Mandelson did not pass the initial vetting process before his appointment as UK ambassador to Washington at the beginning of last year. 

How did this come out?

Last Thursday, The Guardian revealed that the UK’s Foreign Office overturned the initial decision to bar Mandelson from the appointment after security officials conducted the in-depth background check.

By the time, the security officials had failed Mandelson, Starmer had already made his appointment to the position public. 

After these details emerged last week, the Foreign Office’s top civil servant, Olly Robbins, subsequently resigned.

What is Downing Street saying? 

The UK government has said that Starmer was not aware that the former Labour grandee was granted developed vetting against the advice of UK Security Vetting until last week.

This afternoon Starmer is set to face more questions in parliament over the Mandelson scandal with the Conservative opposition once again calling for his resignation.

He’s facing allegations that he knowingly misled parliament after repeatedly telling MPs that ”full due process” was followed in Mandelson’s appointment.

What will Starmer say? 

Starmer is expected to defend himself by blaming officials for not informing him that Mandelson had failed the initial vetting.

A statement issued by No 10 on Sunday night said that although civil servants rather than ministers make decisions on vetting and clearance, there was nothing in the law to prevent ministers being told.

“There is nothing in the guidance which prevented information being shared in this scenario, in a proportionate and necessary way and subject to the appropriate procedural steps,” the statement on the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act said.

Who’s calling for him to go? 

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has again called for Starmer’s resignation saying: “If the Prime Minister doesn’t know what’s happening in his own office, he shouldn’t be in charge of our country. He should go.”

The Green Party and Reform UK have also called for Starmer to resign.

What’s the background again?

Mandelson was fired from his role as ambassador to Washington last September after further details emerged about his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019.

Starmer was aware Mandelson’s dealings with Epstein continued after the financier’s conviction for child sex offences.

Questions over his judgment intensified after the first batch of documents related to the decision published last month showed that he was warned before announcing Mandelson’s ambassadorship of a “general reputational risk” over his association with Epstein.

That warning stemmed from the first part of the checks, carried out by the Cabinet Office, which was based on information in the public domain at the time.

The second was the highly confidential background vetting by security officials, which followed the announcement but came before Mandelson took up his role in February 2025.

Starmer’s Irish-born chief of staff Morgan McSweeney stepped down from his role in February taking “full responsibility” for Mandelson’s appointment and calling for vetting processes to be “fundamentally overhauled”.

With additional reporting from PA.