The prime minister is facing calls to resign amid claims he misled MPs when he told them "full due process" had been followed over Lord Mandelson's appointment as US ambassador.

Starmer is travelling to Paris today to host joint talks with French President Emmanuel Macron over the conflict in the Middle East.

He is due to give a statement in the Commons on Monday on the Mandelson issue, but before then, it's unclear if we'll hear from him on the matter.

Politicians continue to react to the revelations about Lord Mandelson's vetting. Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth posts on X that there's "no trust without transparency".

"So many questions remain unanswered and with every passing day the prime minister is distracted from the day job and failing those he serves," he says.

"It’s time for the No10 operation to come clean or admit its incompetence."

The government's position is that Starmer did not know Mandelson had failed his vetting checks until this week and has since asked the Foreign Office to investigate how and why he was given security clearance.

Starmer was said to be "furious" after he found out about the matter.

Image source, Reuters

Peter Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the US was announced in December 2024, with him taking the role up two months later.

In between, he underwent a high-level vetting process, carried out by a specialist agency within the Cabinet Office, which includes looking at his credit history and criminal record, as well as undertaking an interview.

His appointment has been under intense scrutiny after Mandelson was sacked seven months into the role over his links with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Files into his appointment process have been released by the government for transparency.

On Thursday, the Guardian reported that Mandelson failed his security vetting, but the decision was overruled by the Foreign Office so he could take up the role.

Downing Street later confirmed the story and said that Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not know Mandelson had failed his security vetting until earlier this week.

And now the top Foreign Office civil servant Olly Robbins is being pushed out of his role in the fallout.

Starmer has already faced calls to resign over claims that he misled Parliament in September 2025, when he claimed three times that “full due process” had been followed in the appointment.

The latest revelation has renewed calls for him to step down.

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Stephen Flynn, the SNP's leader in Westminster, says in a post on X: "The Prime Minister is either incompetent, gullible or a liar. Or all three."

Flynn said in an earlier post that it's "hard to now accept that Starmer didn’t lie to the Commons" when he said that due process had been followed during Lord Mandelson's appointment as UK ambassador to the US after he failed the vetting process for the role.

A spokesperson said neither Starmer nor any minister were aware Lord Mandelson had failed the vetting process until earlier this week.

Image source, PA Media

More politicians are reacting to the Foreign Office's top civil servant Olly Robbins leaving his post and the row over Lord Mandelson's appointment .

Green party leader Zack Polanski says "there's no way" today should end without the prime minister's resignation.

In a post on X, he says any other outcome would be "absurd" and it would show Labour "laughing in our faces".

The "ethics and morality" are an important question, he adds.

• A reminder: No 10's position is that Starmer did not know Mandelson had failed the vetting process until this week and has since asked the Foreign Office to investigate how and why Mandelson was given clearance.

Darren Jones, chief secretary to the PM, has been speaking to the BBC Radio 4's Today programme after appearing on BBC Breakfast earlier.

Jones says he has changed the rules to prevent the Foreign Office from being able to overrule a security vetting process.

Jones rejects that Starmer made misleading statements when he previously told the Commons that "due process" was followed in Mandelson's appointment, reiterating that the Foreign Office was allowed to reject security clearance.

Jones says he has now changed the rule that allowed them to do this.

"The fact that that was process that was allowed to happen is quite frankly flabbergasting," he says.

I've heard real anger among Labour MPs over vetting rowpublished at 08:45 BST

08:45 BST

Harry Farley
Political correspondent

It is always a big moment for opposition parties not just to criticise a prime minister but to make the leap to call for them to resign.

That is what happened yesterday.

But the opinions that matter are those held by Labour MPs. They hold Keir Starmer’s fate in their hands. If a significant proportion decide they don’t want him to lead their party, that will be terminal for Starmer.

From conversations I’ve been having with Labour MPs last night and this morning, there is real anger.

In fruitier language than I can write here, one senior MP said the government’s explanation was nonsense and the public was fed up

Another former minister said: “The explanation being put forward stretches credibility to almost breaking point.” They went on to say that if it was the other side of the crucial May elections "it would be terminal but could still be now”.

That is the key point. The prospect of those elections - now less than three weeks’ away - and the perilous situation in the Middle East seems to be, for now, dampening the simmering fury on the Labour backbenches.

That could change of course. And the risk for Keir Starmer is that - whether before or after the May elections - this is another episode that fans the flames of that anger and it boils over into a leadership challenge.

The latest news over Lord Mandelson's failure in the high-level vetting process follows after a spate of controversies surrounding the former ambassador.

He was pulled from the role when the extent of his relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein was revealed, and later arrested by police on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

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Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has also joined calls for the prime minister to resign.

He tells news outlet LBC that "not a single word" Darren Jones - the prime minister's chief secretary - has said this morning is "believable". Jones earlier told the BBC that Starmer did not mislead Parliament and did not know about the failure of Lord Mandelson's vetting.

"It is totally unbelievable," Farage says, and describes Olly Robbins - the top official at the Foreign Office who is leaving his role as a result - as the "sacrificial lamb".

He describes Robbins as one of the most professional civil servants in the UK and says there is "no way" he would have decided to lie to Starmer over the vetting failure.

Farage says he is in "no doubt" that Starmer misled the House of Commons.

Image source, PA Media

MPs are continuing to react to the latest news about the government's appointment of Lord Mandelson as the UK's ambassador to the US in 2024.

Next up, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch says she genuinely believes the PM is lying about not knowing Lord Mandelson had failed his vetting process.

"It is completely preposterous that the prime minister, the former chief prosecutor of this country, did not ask basic questions, did not ask to look at the security vetting himself," she tells Radio 4's Today programme. "I'm afraid that it is simply not possible."

She also accuses him of breaching ministerial code, by misleading parliament that due process had been followed in Mandelson's appointment.

"All roads lead to resignation," she says.

• A reminder: No 10's position is that Starmer did not know Mandelson had failed the vetting process until this week and has since asked the Foreign Office to investigate how and why Mandelson was given security clearance.

Darren Jones, chief secretary to the prime minister, has just been speaking to BBC Breakfast.

Asked if the prime minister is going to resign, or whether he's considered it, Jones says "no". He goes on to say the PM has not knowingly or unknowingly misled Parliament.

This is because UK Security Vetting undertake their investigations and then make a recommendation to the department, who can reject the recommendation, which is the process that is allowed to be followed, he explains.

Jones says it is "astonishing" the Foreign Office "was allowed" to overrule the recommendation that Mandelson shouldn't be given his security clearance.

Pushed further on whether Starmer misled Parliament, Jones again says he has not, as Starmer was told by the Foreign Office that Mandelson had been given security clearance.

The government became aware that Mandelson failed after they recently asked to see the UK Security Vetting recommendations to the Foreign Office, Jones says.

Lord Beamish, chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee, tells the BBC he first knew Mandelson had failed security vetting on Thursday.

He is part of the team that is assessing the files given to the government relating to Mandelson's appointment, and deciding what can be made public depending on security risks.

"It does raise a wider point... and that's the way that intelligence was handled within the government", and how the intelligence was being used, Beamish tells the Today programme.

There's also concern about how "different communications systems are being used to conduct what, in some cases, is very sensitive and highly classified information," he adds.

Mandelson saga remains a horror film on repeat for Starmerpublished at 07:15 BST

07:15 BST

Chris Mason
Political editor

The prime minister’s decision to send Peter Mandelson to Washington is like a horror film - stuck on repeat - for Keir Starmer.

The whole saga has now cost another person at the centre of government their job. And there are some, both on the opposition benches and within the Labour Party, who think it might yet cost the prime minister his.

This whole thing was already a grimace-through-his-fingers affair for Starmer, without an unlikely twist like this dredging it back into the limelight yet again and prompting sharp questions as to whether he was insufficiently curious about the vetting process.

And all this before the next deluge of documents about Mandelson’s appointment, which Parliament has demanded and we were already anticipating.

The prime minister is, I’m told, absolutely furious. Labour MPs aren't too pleased either that this mess is making headlines once again.

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Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey says the prime minister can't get out of this row by sacking a civil servant (Olly Robbins).

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Davey argues it's "inconceivable that on such a sensitive matter" the permanent under-secretary of the Foreign Office wouldn't have referred to ministers on this.

He'd only just got into the job and it was a matter of "national security", Davey says, suggesting this "surely would have been communicated to the prime minister".

But if the government is telling the truth that Starmer did not know, "what does that say about the government and how they operate", Davey asks - adding that people must have been "hiding critical information".

"I think this shows catastrophically poor judgement," he says, adding Mandelson's appointment "endangered national security". He also says the evidence suggests Starmer has misled the Commons and the public, and calls for him to resign.

• A reminder: No 10's position is that Starmer did not know Mandelson had failed the vetting process until this week and has since asked the Foreign Office to investigate how and why Mandelson was given clearance.

We're starting to hear from MPs now as they begin the morning media round to discuss the departure of Olly Robbins and the row over Lord Mandelson's appointment.

Stick with us as we bring you voices from across the political spectrum.

It's a highly confidential and top-level process, carried out by UK Security Vetting, a specialist agency within the Cabinet Office.

Developed vetting is for those in roles where they have frequent and uncontrolled access to top secret assets, the government’s website says. And it's designed to make sure those people are unlikely to abuse their access to secret material, or be subject to blackmail or bribery.

There’s a variety of checks involved, including credit checks and a full review of personal finances, a check of security service records and criminal history, a check of company records including all personal files and staff report as well as a detailed interview.

What's been revealed now is that the Foreign Office was advised in January 2025 that Lord Mandelson had failed the process, but the Foreign Office went against advice and gave him clearance anyway.

After it was first reported on Thursday that Lord Mandelson had failed his vetting checks, the government said Keir Starmer had not known this - until Tuesday of this week.

A government spokesperson said once Starmer found out, he "immediately instructed officials to establish the facts about why the Developed Vetting was granted, in order to enact plans to update the House of Commons".

Starmer is expected to give a statement on the issue in the House of Commons on Monday.

The Foreign Office said it was "working urgently" to comply with the PM's request to establish the facts.

Labour MP Emily Thornberry, who chairs the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said she felt she was "misled" by the top official at the Foreign Office, Olly Robbins, when he gave evidence to her committee last November about Mandelson's vetting. He is now leaving his post.

The PM was said to be "furious" after he found out Mandelson had failed vetting.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, PA Media

The top civil servant in the Foreign Office, Olly Robbins, is leaving his role following the revelation that his department didn’t tell the prime minister that Lord Mandelson failed security vetting.

Mandelson took up the role of UK ambassador to the US in February 2025, after his appointment was announced in December.

Seven months later, Mandelson was sacked over ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and the government has been facing scrutiny over the appointment ever since.

Keir Starmer previously told parliament that “due process” was followed, and the government says he didn’t know Mandelson had failed his vetting until this week. Despite this, there's renewed anger at Starmer and No 10 over the appointment - including calls for him to resign from the Tories, Lib Dems and Green Party.

We’re expecting to hear from multiple MPs over the next few hours, including opposition leader Kemi Badenoch. We'll bring you all that, plus political analysis, right here in this page.