Mandelson became U.S. ambassador in February 2025 before being sacked in September over his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The Guardian first reported Thursday afternoon Mandelson did not pass his security vetting clearance, but that the Foreign Office overruled the decision.
Jones told the BBC on Friday morning that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office ignored the advice of United Kingdom Security Vetting, the government’s screening agency.
“I find this whole situation astonishing,” Jones said in his BBC remarks, adding that he suspended the Foreign Office’s right to ignore security vetting going forward last night. “That is a failure of state process that was in line with the rules, which I have now changed.”
Jones said the PM had been told that Mandelson was “granted developed vetting status” and that no minister saw the vetting because it involves “deeply invasive personal investigations into people’s backgrounds.” The government has said Starmer was made aware of vetting failure on Tuesday evening.
Jones also told Sky News Starmer was “furious with the state” and that it was “utterly unacceptable” both that the Foreign Office had not told him that information and that the process existed in the first place.
The continued row about Mandelson is raising fresh questions about Starmer’s embattled leadership. With tough local elections looming May 7, one Labour MP told POLITICO’s London Playbook that “grim inaction is our best option” while a loyalist MP said “this can’t go on for many more months.”