Keir Starmer 'ignored security advice' about Peter Mandelson's appointment

Keir Starmer has been accused of ignoring security concerns put forward by Britain's spooks when he pressed ahead with appointing Lord Mandelson as his ambassador in Washington. Sky News reports two sources who insist that the security services did flag concerns about Lord Mandelson to No. 10 as part of the vetting process, but were overruled by Downing Street.

This morning Sir Keir Starmer's spokesman defended the vetting system, while suggesting that the emails between Lord Mandelson and Jeffrey Epstein did not surface. It is understood that the embarrassing love-filled communication between the two were sent from an old email address that Lord Mandelson did not have access to when the vetting process was conducted. Responding to Sky's claims, Conservative Foreign Secretary Priti Patel said the revelations are "extraordinary".

Dame Priti blasted: "For Keir Starmer, and his Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney, to have appointed Lord Mandelson despite concerns being raised by the Security Services shows a blatant disregard of all national security considerations and their determination to promote their Labour Party friends.

"Starmer leads a crisis riddled government consumed by a chaos of his own making, because he puts his Party before the needs of our country.

"The country deserves the honest truth this spineless Prime Minister refuses to give them."

The Tories have demanded all documents from the vetting process to be made public.

Sir Keir's chief of staff Morgan McSweeney is also under mounting pressure, who is close to Lord Mandelson and is believed to have been keen on his appointment to Washington.

Shadow minister Alex Burghart warned: "Knives coming out for McSweeney now".

This morning the PM's spokesman insisted that Sir Keir has full faith in his entire Downing Street team.

Lord Mandelson was sacked this morning, with No. 10 claiming it was a result of new emails between him and the infamous paedophile showing that their top diplomat did not believe Mr Epstein's guilt when he first went to prison on child sex offences.

In the damning new emails, Lord Mandelson told his "best pal" Epstein to "fight for early release" shortly before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

And in 2008 he told the billionaire financier - found dead in his cell in 2019 awaiting trial for molesting hundreds of schoolgirls - that "I think the world of you and I feel hopeless and furious about what has happened."

A spokesman said: "In light of the additional information in emails written by Peter Mandelson, the Prime Minister has asked the Foreign Secretary to withdraw him as Ambassador. The emails show that the depth and extent of Peter Mandelson's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment. In particular Peter Mandelson's suggestion that Jeffrey Epstein's first conviction was wrongful and should be challenged is new information."

"In light of that, and mindful of the victims of Epstein's crimes he has been withdrawn as Ambassador with immediate effect."

Top Tories have now suggested the Prime Minister could be "gone by Christmas" as a result of yet another major scandal that raises serious questions about his judgement and motive.