Five unanswered questions on Keir Starmer’s Mandelson debacle

How did the PM’s chosen US ambassador fail security vetting but still get approved, what exactly did he know, and who is to blame? Downing Street has tried to do a lot of explaining, as has Keir Starmer himself. But there are still plenty of things we do not know about how Peter Mandelson failed security vetting, and what the prime minister did or did not know about it. A fairly key question. Downing Street is clear: it is “staggering” that Mandelson failed vetting, and that the Foreign Office not only overruled this but told no one in No 10. However, Ciaran Martin, a former top civil servant with past involvement in vetting work – and a close friend of the ousted Olly Robbins – said this was an oversimplification. Rather than vetting being a simple yes or no, he told the BBC, it was a balance of risks, and entirely standard for officials to decide whether this was acceptable. The prime minister told MPs that “full due process” had been followed in appointing Mandelson. Asked if parliament had been misled, even if this was not the PM’s fault, No 10 appeared to accept this was possible, saying: “The prime minister feels that he should update parliament on Monday on