A senior cabinet minister has admitted that “political considerations” about Lord Mandelson’s “outstanding singular talents” meant security concerns about the Labour peer being made ambassador to the US were ignored.
Business secretary Peter Kyle repeated the claim on Sky News and BBC on Sunday morning that “new information” coming to light over his relationship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein led to his sacking on Friday.
Last week The Independent revealed that Sir Keir pushed through his appointment earlier this year despite failing security vetting by MI6.
He refused to say if the prime minister spoke to Mandelson directly to let him know he was sacked or whether the appointment was a mistake in the first place.
Mr Kyle told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News it was not correct that Lord Mandelson was appointed ambassador to the US before security checks were completed.
He said: “The Cabinet Office did an independent inquiry into the appointment, as they do in every public appointment of this nature, and the information, that was presented to the prime minister.”
But he admitted that political considerations trumped security concerns about Mandelson which also included China links not only his relationship with Epstein. In January The Independent revealed that the same concerns almost led to Donald Trump refusing Mandelson’s credentials.
Mr Kyle said: “The second process was obviously a political process where there are political conversations done in No 10 about all the other aspects of an appointment of this nature.
“Now both of these things turned up information that was already public and a decision was made that based on Peter’s singular talents in this area, that the risk of appointing knowing what was already public was worth the risk.”
But he added on Laura Kuenssberg’s Sunday morningshow on the BBC that Mandelson’s appointment had achieved a lot for the UK.
He said: “[At the time of the appointment] global norms were turned upside down. The relationship between Britain and America was in a perilous state because of the threat of tariffs. What was happening economically, trying to repurpose and rethink the special relationship. Britain needed somebody with outstanding, singular talents, experience which was very hard to come by.”
Explaining the “new information” he claimed the vetting did not pick up emails which came to light this week showing Mandelson advising Epstein on tackling his conviction and calling the financier his “best pal”.
The business secretary said: “Of course we have seen the emails which were not published at the time, were not public and not even known about, and that has changed the situation.”
“They had what was public – which was extracts of the emails and … and immediately, upon having being alerted to extracts of emails, the Foreign Office contacted Peter Mandelson and asked for his account of the emails and asked for them to be put into context and for his response.
“That response did not come before PMQs and then after PMQs the full, the full emails were released by Bloomberg in the evening.
“By the first thing the next morning, when the Prime Minister had time to read the emails in full, having had them in full, and reading them almost immediately of having them, Peter was withdrawn as ambassador.”
He stressed that the media had the “same information that we had at the time” of the appointment.
“We only knew what the media knew at the time,” he said. Opponents said it was “astonishing” would prioritise Mandelson’s talents over security concerns and Epstein’s victims.
Tory chairman Kevin Hollinrake said: “It is astonishing that the new business and trade Secretary has openly admitted that Downing Street chose to prioritise Mandelson’s ‘singular and outstanding talents’ over the rights of Epstein’s victims. Even more damning, this cover-up appears to have continued for a further 48 hours this week as more and more revelations came to light.”
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch made it clear that she will demand the prime minister gives a statement on the fiasco to the Commons on Monday.
She said: “Our weak prime minister is hiding, sending out ministers to answer for his terrible judgement.
“The last time we saw Starmer was Wednesday when he told me he had confidence in Mandelson.
“The PM needs to come to Parliament tomorrow and tell the truth about what he knew and when.”
