The Starmer-Mandelson Scandal: Lying or Incompetence?

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**Alastair Campbell** (3:04)
Welcome to The Rest Is Politics with me, Alastair Campbell.

**Rory Stewart** (3:06)
And me, Rory Stewart.

**Alastair Campbell** (3:07)
Now, Rory and I were hoping to have a nice, quiet day today. And we're gonna have a nice, quiet day, because we've got, well, no, we've got other things on, but I think we have to say something about what's been going on overnight regarding the seemingly never-ending saga of Keir Starmer's appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the United States.
So, Peter Mandelson was appointed, then had to resign over his links with Jeffrey Epstein, about which Keir Starmer claimed not to know the full detail. Then the launch of a process to look at the process by which he was appointed. And in that investigation of that process, it has emerged that Peter Mandelson was failed in part of the vetting process that's run by the Cabinet Office, but that the Foreign Office decided he should be appointed anyway. So, what has happened is that it has emerged that the Cabinet Office vetting process through which I went through it. I don't think you probably did, Rory, because you were a minister, but I certainly went through it.

**Rory Stewart** (4:07)
I went through it as a civil servant.

**Alastair Campbell** (4:09)
Oh, of course, before that, yeah. As it pertains to Peter Mandelson, it seems that the Cabinet Office vetting process decided he should not be cleared for developed vetting, which is top secret information.
This was not taken into such account by the Foreign Office that they basically said, well, that means he can't do the job. On the contrary, the Foreign Office decided that he could do the job, and it seems or it is claimed that nobody in Downing Street and no ministers were told about this key fact that Peter Mandelson's vetting process had thrown up something which had led them to suggest he should not be appointed. Have I given a reasonably clear explanation? Now that Olly Robbins, the head of the Foreign Office Civil Service, Permanent Secretary, he has been fired unceremoniously, just in the manner as Peter Mandelson was fired by Olly Robbins, after Peter Mandelson's, the depth of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein became clear. Now Rory, we're not going to do a full 45-minute, hour-long episode on this. Doubtless, we'll talk about it again next week because Keir Starmer is going to have to make a statement on Monday. But I think it is important enough for us to have to say something. So what's your thoughts?