Starmer admits mistake in appointing Mandelson as UK ambassador but resists calls to resign

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer acknowledged Monday that he made the wrong judgment when he appointed Jeffrey Epstein ’s friend Peter Mandelson as U.K. ambassador to Washington, but said he would not have done so if he had known Mandelson had failed security checks.

Starmer faced a barrage of opposition calls to resign as he tried to explain why Mandelson was given the job despite failing security vetting for the U.K.'s most important diplomatic post. Starmer brushed aside the demands, placing blame squarely on Foreign Office officials who he says failed to tell him about the security concerns.

He said the facts about Mandelson's vetting "could and should have been shared with me before he took up his post.”

Starmer told lawmakers in the House of Commons that “I would not have gone ahead with the appointment” had he known. Mandelson was fired in September, nine months into the job, when new details emerged about his friendship with Epstein.

Starmer's explanation was greeted with jeers from opposition lawmakers, incredulous that the nation's leader hadn't known such a crucial piece of information.

“I know many members across the House will find these facts to be incredible," Starmer said. "To that, I can only say they are right. It beggars belief.”

Opposition Conservative Party lawmaker Kemi Badenoch said Starmer's lack of curiosity was hard to believe.

“It doesn’t appear that he asked any questions at all. Why? Because he didn’t want to know," she said.

Starmer resists pressure to resign

Starmer was attempting to set the record straight after repeatedly telling lawmakers that “due process” was followed when Mandelson was appointed. He now says he’s “furious” that he wasn’t informed that an intensive vetting process had recommended Mandelson not be given security clearance. The Foreign Office, which oversees diplomatic appointments, cleared him anyway.

Starmer fired the top Foreign Office civil servant, Olly Robbins, within hours of the revelation by The Guardian last week. But allies of Robbins say he would never have been able to share sensitive vetting information with the prime minister.

Robbins is expected to give his own version of events to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

Badenoch said that instead of taking responsibility for his mistakes, Starmer "has thrown his staff and his officials under the bus.”

Ed Davey, leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats, said Starmer "gives every impression of a prime minister in office but not in power.

“The prime minister knew that appointing Mandelson was an enormous risk. He decided that it was a risk worth taking — a catastrophic error of judgment. And now that it’s blown up in his face, the only decent thing to do is to take responsibility."

Senior government colleagues have defended the prime minister. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said that if Starmer had known about the failed security vetting, “he would never, ever have appointed him ambassador.”

But lawmakers in Starmer’s center-left Labour Party, already anxious about the party’s dire poll ratings, are restive. Starmer has already defused one potential crisis in February, when some Labour lawmakers urged him to resign over the Mandelson appointment.

He could face a new challenge if, as expected, Labour takes a hammering in local and regional elections on May 7, which give voters a chance to pass a midterm verdict on the government.

Warnings about Epstein ties went unheeded

Critics say the Mandelson appointment is more evidence of a failure of judgment by a prime minister who has made repeated missteps since he led Labour to a landslide election victory in July 2024. Starmer has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living, and has been forced into repeated policy U-turns.

He picked Mandelson for one of Britain’s most important diplomatic jobs despite being warned by his staff that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019, exposed the government to “reputational risk.”

Mandelson’s business links to Russia and China also set off alarm bells. But his expertise as a former European Union trade chief and contacts among global elites were considered assets in dealing with President Donald Trump’s administration.

He lasted less than nine months in the job. Starmer fired Mandelson in September 2025, after evidence emerged that he had lied about the extent of his links to Epstein.

A trove of Epstein-related documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice in January included emails suggesting Mandelson had passed on sensitive, and potentially market-moving, government information to Epstein in 2009, after the global financial crisis.