A crunch week for Sir Keir Starmer is set to continue on Monday as he updates the House of Commons on the latest revelations about Lord Mandelson’s appointment.No 10 on Friday night released a readout of a meeting between the Prime Minister and senior civil servants that appeared to corroborate that Sir Keir only found out on Tuesday that Lord Mandelson was cleared for his role as Britain’s representative in Washington against the advice of security officials.The Foreign Office has been blamed for clearing the peer in January 2025 to begin as US ambassador, despite him failing a secure vetting process.The Prime Minister has said he was “absolutely furious”, and described the failure to inform him as “staggering”.Sir Olly Robbins, who was only weeks into his job as Foreign Office permanent secretary at the time, was sacked on Thursday as he had lost the confidence of Sir Keir and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper.
