As expected the first load of documents relating to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as Britain’s ambassador to Washington show that several red flags were raised to Keir Starmer but that he chose to ignore them. What is perhaps more worrying is that the Prime Minister opted instead to rely on the counsel of his then comms chief Matthew Doyle and No 10 chief of staff Morgan McSweeney. Doyle, ennobled by Starmer was suspended from the Labour party almost as soon as he’d been fitted for his ermine robe because of his public support for Sean Morton, a former Labour councillor and convicted sex offender. Doyle’s support for Morton was not secret, he’d even worn a tee shirt proclaiming the man’s innocence. Starmer says he was lied to by Doyle.
Mandelson who’d already been sacked twice from government roles was known to be a friend of paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Mandelson’s links to China and business interests were also raised during the due diligence process. Unsurprisingly a number of senior people including the UK’s then ambassador to the US, Karen Pierce, national security adviser Jonthan Powell and Sir Philip Barton, the most senior civil servant at the Foreign Office warned Starmer about appointing Mandelson. Pierce had warned that Epstein would become a huge issue in the US. Starmer, was apparently reassured by McSweeney and Doyle and chose to ignore the concerns raised and in fact seemed content to fast track the appointment even allowing Mandelson access to highly classified information before the vetting process was completed. Starmer says Mandelson lied.
For a man whose default position seems to be caution almost to the point of dithering and whose career has been built as a lawyer, ‘I was lied to’ is an excuse that doesn’t stand up to the most fleeting scrutiny. Where is the curiosity, a gut feeling, the instinct to probe a little deeper, to Google it for heaven’s sake? Of course a Prime Minister cannot be expected to have an eye on every single thing every hour of the day but you can’t outsource decisions and then say I was lied to. The appeal of putting Mandelson, a snake if ever there was one, into the viper’s nest of Trump’s second administration is understandable but to make such a blunder against a blaze of flashing warning lights is unforgiveable.
The tragedy is that Keir Starmer has shown his mettle in refusing to blindly follow Trump into an absurd and dangerous war in the Middle East. He is a man of principle but has surrounded himself with, and relied upon political apparatchiks who might be good at campaigns but absolutely useless at governing. Just like the fake tans, fake nails and fake life style of the so-called influencers now fleeing Dubai what once seemed a glittering prize after winning a huge majority after 14 years of Tory misrule is fading fast to reveal something chipped, tacky and badly made.
