Starmer ‘exercised wrong judgement’: Donald Trump weighs in over appointment of ‘really bad pick’ Mandelson
Lord Mandelson was granted developed vetting clearance despite the recommendation that this should be denied.
Donald Trump has weighed in on Sir Keir Starmer's appointment of Lord Mandelson as Ambassador to the US, as the Prime Minister is to face another bruising day in Parliament.
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The US President posted on social media that he agreed that Sir Keir exercised "wrong judgment" when appointing Lord Mandelson.
He added: "I agree, he was a really bad pick. Plenty of time to recover, however! President DJT."
Sir Keir has denied misleading Parliament after extraordinary revelations that Lord Mandelson failed security vetting before becoming US ambassador.
The Prime Minister blamed former top civil servant Sir Olly Robbins for deliberately keeping him in the dark over the failure to pass the checks.
Read more: Starmer on collision course with sacked civil servant over Mandelson scandal
The House of Commons will subject the Prime Minister’s latest efforts to lay out the facts of the scandal to further scrutiny on Tuesday, as MPs hold an emergency debate on Lord Mandelson’s appointment.
Sir Olly, until last week the most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office, will reportedly tell the Foreign Affairs Committee that the Government pressured him into clearing Lord Mandelson, despite the peer’s relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, and business links to Russia and China.
Lord Mandelson, who spent nine months as US ambassador before fresh details of his relationship with Epstein emerged, was a political appointment to the plum diplomatic role, rather than the Washington job going to a career diplomat.
The Times also reported that Sir Olly will use his “box office” appearance at the committee to reveal he did not see the formal recommendation by vetting officials that Lord Mandelson should not be given clearance, while insisting the UK Security Vetting (UKSV) process is only advisory.
On Monday, the Prime Minister said he challenged Sir Olly over why he went against the recommendation of UKSV.
“I did ask him and I didn’t accept his explanation,” Sir Keir told the Commons. “That’s why I sacked him.”
The Prime Minister also said he would not have appointed Lord Mandelson if he had known the peer had failed the checks and insisted there was no pressure from No 10 to push through the high-profile appointment.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch applied for the emergency Commons debate about the scandal, telling MPs it was “a matter of national security because the Prime Minister has admitted appointing a known serious security risk to our most sensitive diplomatic post”.
Shadow Housing Secretary Sir James Cleverly told LBC, “the Prime Minister's performance in the Chamber yesterday has made the situation worse”.
He criticised Sir Keir for repeating that he was not informed of the details, but “refused to answer why he didn't ask”.
“We all knew that Mandelson was a high-risk appointment,” Sir James said.
“We all knew he'd maintained a friendship with Epstein. He had business interests with a Russian arms manufacturing company after the initial invasion of Crimea by Russia.
"We knew he had deep business interests with China. We knew that he was a security risk. This was public domain information.
"And yet the Prime Minister didn't bother to ask anyone if the vetting process was okay. And had he asked, it would have been clear that it wasn’t.”