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UK lawmakers reject Mandelson inquiry

By Julian Shea in London | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2026-04-30 03:25
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This handout photograph taken and released by the UK Parliament's House of Commons on April 29, 2026, shows Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaking during the weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions. [Photo/Agencies]

United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer has escaped having a parliamentary inquiry opened into his appointment of Peter Mandelson to be the country’s ambassador to the United States, as the controversy that has dominated domestic politics recently shows no sign of going away.

Mandelson was sacked nine months after his appointment, when the extent of his friendship with the dead US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein became apparent.

It later emerged that his appointment to the job had been confirmed despite him having failed to pass security vetting, and Starmer has since become bogged down in a row about how much he knew about this, and what he said about it.

The opposition Conservative Party called a vote in the House of Commons to demand a parliamentary probe into what had gone on, with the party’s leader, Kemi Badenoch, saying it was “very obvious” that what Starmer had told members of the house about Mandelson’s appointment was “not correct” and that “full due process was not followed”.

In a clear display of disapproval, several members of Starmer’s governing Labour Party refrained from voting when the time came late on Tuesday, but with the government having a large majority in the 650-seat Parliament, the motion was defeated by 335 votes to 223.

Starmer dismissed the Conservative Party’s move as a “political stunt” in the run-up to local elections taking place across the country early next month, but the saga continues to be front-page news, as Parliament’s foreign affairs committee has been hearing evidence from people involved in the process.

Starmer’s former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, told the committee that he made a “serious mistake” by advising Starmer to go ahead with the appointment, but he denied saying that Mandelson’s vetting checks “should be cleared at all costs”.

Earlier in his political career, Mandelson was twice forced to resign from government posts, so his appointment to such a prestigious position as ambassador to Washington did cause some surprise.

However, the government’s Scotland Secretary Douglas Alexander told the BBC “a judgment was made that the (United States President Donald) Trump administration was an unconventional administration, and an unconventional ambassador could do a job for the United Kingdom … that judgment was wrong”.

To make the situation worse for the government, since Mandelson’s sacking, further revelations have come to light about his friendship with Epstein, and in February he was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, relating to allegations that he shared market-sensitive government information with Epstein.

In addition, the European Commission has asked the European Anti-Fraud Office to look at correspondence between the pair during Mandelson’s time as a European commissioner, from 2004 to 2008.

julian@mail.chinadailyuk.com

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