Starmer could face parliament sleaze inquiry over Mandelson
British prime minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech in Lancashire on Monday. Picture: Temilade Adelaja/PA
British prime minister Keir Starmer could face a parliamentary sleaze inquiry into claims he lied to MPs over the Peter Mandelson scandal.
The Commons will vote on Tuesday whether to refer Starmer to the privileges committee to consider if he misled the House over the way Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US was handled.
Commons speaker Lindsay Hoyle allowed a vote on the issue following requests from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and other senior MPs.
Cabinet minister Emma Reynolds accused the Tories of playing “silly political games” over the issue.
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The speaker’s decision now gives the Labour leadership a headache in deciding whether to order Starmer's Labour MPs to publicly oppose a referral to the committee.
The committee was responsible for Boris Johnson’s exit from frontline politics after it investigated him for misleading the House over the “partygate” breaches of covid-19 laws in Downing Street.
He quit as an MP in 2023 before the committee published a report recommending his suspension.
Badenoch called for Labour MPs to back the referral to the privileges committee.
She said: “The prime minister misled the House of Commons repeatedly.
“He appointed a national security risk and friend of a convicted paedophile to be our ambassador in Washington, our most sensitive diplomatic post.
“He pretended that full due process was followed for this appointment. It was not.
“He has blamed the appointment on officials when the blame can only be placed at his own door.”
Starmer has been accused of misleading MPs by saying that “full due process” was followed in appointing Mandelson, who was given developed vetting status despite failing security checks.
The Foreign Office, under then top civil servant Olly Robbins, cleared him despite red flags raised by experts at the UK security vetting agency responsible for the checks.
Starmer has also faced questions for telling MPs that “no pressure existed whatsoever in relation to this case”.
Robbins told MPs “my office and the foreign secretary’s office were under constant pressure” about the appointment in January 2025, after it had been announced but before the security checks were completed.
Starmer told he was not talking about the “everyday pressure of government” but the suggestion of specific pressure on Robbins to grant Mandelson’s developed vetting status.
“(Robbins) was really clear in his mind that wasn’t pressure that was put on him. And he also goes on to say that none of this impacted his decision,” said Starmer.
Downing Street suggested the timing of the move was driven by next week’s elections to English councils and the Scottish and Welsh parliaments.
A No 10 spokesman said: “The government is engaging with the two parliamentary processes that are already running on Peter Mandelson’s appointment with full transparency.
“This is a desperate political stunt by the Conservative Party the week before the May elections because they have no answers on the cost of living or the NHS. Their claims have no substance.”
The government has promised to comply with an order by MPs to disclose documents relating to Mandelson’s appointment to the post in Washington, which ended after nine months in September 2025 when he was sacked over the extent of his links to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The Commons foreign affairs committee is also examining how Mandelson was granted security clearance.
Robbins, who was sacked by Starmer for not disclosing the security concerns to ministers, gave evidence to the committee last week.
On Tuesday the MPs are due to hear from Starmer's former chief of staff, Cork man Morgan McSweeney, widely regarded as a protege of Mandelson.
He resigned in February over his part in the peer getting the coveted job.
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