Darren Jones said the appointment of the now former-US ambassador was a ‘failure of the state.’
LONDON — One of Keir Starmer’s closest allies said Friday that the prime minister is “furious” with the “failure of the state” which allowed Peter Mandelson to be appointed as ambassador to the United States despite red flags raised in his security vetting.
The comments from Darren Jones, chief secretary to the prime minister, come as Starmer is facing mounting scrutiny — and despair from his own MPs — over what he and his team knew about Mandelson’s clearance for the top diplomatic post when he was appointed in December 2024.
Olly Robbins was dismissed as head of the Foreign Office Thursday evening after losing the confidence of Starmer and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper over the row.
Mandelson became U.S. ambassador in February 2025 before being sacked in September over his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Guardian first reported Thursday afternoon Mandelson did not pass his security vetting clearance, but that the Foreign Office overruled the decision.
Jones told the BBC on Friday morning that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office ignored the advice of United Kingdom Security Vetting, the government’s screening agency.
“I find this whole situation astonishing,” Jones said in his BBC remarks, adding that he suspended the Foreign Office’s right to ignore security vetting going forward last night. “That is a failure of state process that was in line with the rules, which I have now changed.”
Jones said the PM had been told that Mandelson was “granted developed vetting status” and that no minister saw the vetting because it involves “deeply invasive personal investigations into people’s backgrounds.” The government has said Starmer was made aware of vetting failure on Tuesday evening.
Jones also told Sky News Starmer was “furious with the state” and that it was “utterly unacceptable” both that the Foreign Office had not told him that information and that the process existed in the first place.
The continued row about Mandelson is raising fresh questions about Starmer’s embattled leadership. With tough local elections looming May 7, one Labour MP told POLITICO’s London Playbook that “grim inaction is our best option” while a loyalist MP said “this can’t go on for many more months.”
A third MP, also a loyalist and granted anonymity like those above to speak frankly, said “There is absolutely no way he [Robbins] made the decision unilaterally.”
Labour MP Jo White, who chairs the Red Wall Caucus of MPs, told Times Radio Friday she wants a statement from Starmer imminently to “dampen down the speculation and the stories that come out in the weekend press.”
Every Labour MP is asking for “absolute transparency and we want that information now,” White said. Suspended Labour MP Diane Abbott, a longtime critic of the PM, told Sky Starmer “must consider his position” and “it is not possible” the government wasn’t aware of the Mandelson vetting decision.
Bethany Dawson contributed to this report.