Starmer 'not aware' of Mandelson vetting advice until Tuesday night with two civil servants blamed for delay
The readout of the meeting with two senior civil servants in the Cabinet Office appears to clear Sir Keir of suggestions he intentionally misled Parliament
Sir Keir Starmer was “not aware” that the Foreign Office had granted Peter Mandelson clearance to become US ambassador despite failing vetting until Tuesday night, a document released by Downing Street says.
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A readout of the meeting, published by No.10 on Friday, was sent by the Prime Minister's Principal Private Secretary, Dan York-Smith, following the meeting on Tuesday.
The meeting is understood to have involved the Cabinet Secretary, Dame Antonia Romeo, and the Cabinet Office's permanent secretary, Catherine Little.
A report in the Guardian has claimed that Ms Romeo and Ms Little were aware of the recommendation to not clear Mandelson as early as March.
The Cabinet Office has hit back at the reports, claiming the delay between them learning about the vetting issues and informing the Prime Minister was due to "expedited checks" being undertaken.
The document says that Ms Little learned of the recommendation that then-Lord Mandelson should not be granted Developed Vetting (DV) when reviewing his file as part of the Government’s response to Parliament's order to release the files related to his appointment.
Downing Street has released the email on Friday as part of attempts to prove that the Prime Minister was not aware of Mandelson not being recommended to be cleared when he told the Commons that he had been vetted properly.
The email read: “As part of the humble address process, that file had been shared with Cat. On reviewing the file she had therefore learned that the recommendation from the vetting officer had been that DV should not be granted to Peter Mandelson.
“There is some discretion for departments to proceed with clearance and the FCDO had exercised it in this case, granting Mandelson vetting clearance. Cat had not seen the audit trail for this decision so we did not yet know on what basis the decision had been taken, contrary to the recommendation.
“The PM was not aware of any of this before the meeting, including that it was even possible to grant clearance against the advice of UKSV.
“There is no evidence that the decision to grant DV despite the UKSV advice had been disclosed to anyone outside FCDO and UKSV before the document was shared with CO to comply with the humble address.”
Speaking from Paris on Friday, the PM branded it "staggering" and "unacceptable" that he was not made aware that Lord Mandelson had failed checks ahead of the appointment.
"I was not told that he had failed security vetting, no minister was told... Number 10 wasn't told, that is completely unacceptable," he told the media.
This morning, Number 10 claimed that no minister had been told that Mandelson had failed vetting for the role, laying blame at the door of the Foreign Office.
As a result, top Foreign Office civil servant Olly Robbins was removed from his post after previously holding the role of chief Brexit negotiator from 2017 to 2019.
Despite the release of the email, The Independent has claimed that they made Downing Street aware of the vetting failure seven months ago.
After the allegations in the Guardian, a Cabinet Office spokesperson told LBC: “As part of the Government’s commitment to comply fully with the Humble Address, the Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office requested the vetting summary document.
"Once she received this document, the Cabinet Office immediately undertook a series of expedited checks in order to be in a sound position to share the document, or the fact of it.
“This included legal advice on what information could be shared further in the context of the Humble Address, including from the First Treasury Counsel; consideration of whether sharing the information would prejudice criminal proceedings; and seeking information from the Foreign Office about the process they had followed which led to Peter Mandelson being given Developed Vetting clearance against the recommendation of UK Security Vetting.
“As soon as these checks were conducted, the Prime Minister was informed.”
Speaking to LBC's Drive with Tom Swarbrick, Sir Richard Dearlove, the man once known as "C", said that Peter Mandelson's career "reeks of a lack of integrity".
He also cast doubt on Sir Keir's explanation that he did not know that the former US Ambassador had been recommended not to be given security clearance before his appointment.
Sir Richard told Tom: "Whatever angle you look at this issue from, it's very bad for the Prime Minister.
"Let's start with Mandelson himself. Did anyone ever think he could pass a DV (Developed Vetting) , or be recommended for a DV by the vetters? The whole of his career reeks of a lack of integrity."
On Mandelson, who was once dubbed the "Prince of Darkness", Sir Richard added: "I'm not questioning his ability as a political fixer or his position as a talisman for New Labour, but one could have anticipated in advance that there would be probable advice from a vetting department not to grant him a certificate."
Moving on to the decision to appoint Lord Mandelson in the first place, the former spook said: "Mandelson as the choice to be Ambassador right from the word go was flawed - and now we've got the whole issue of the process.
"I honestly cannot believe that the Permanent Undersecretary in the Foreign Office didn't ring up his minister, who he sees every day, and say, I think it was David Lammy at the time and say: 'Look, we have a problem. The vetters have advised...he shouldn't be granted a DV certificate.'"