British Prime Minister Starmer faces angry lawmakers over Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer co-hosts a multinational virtual summit with French President Emmanuel Macron, not pictured, at the Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris, Friday April 17, 2026 (Tom Nicholson/Pool Photo via AP) 2026-04-20T04:06:17Z LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will try on Monday to get a grip on a crisis that has left power slipping from his grasp. Starmer will face a tough barrage of questions in Parliament when he stands up to explain why Peter Mandelson , a scandal-tarnished politician and friend of Jeffrey Epstein , became Britain’s ambassador to Washington despite failing security checks — and seemingly without Starmer being told about the concerns. The revelation has left furious opponents calling for Starmer to resign and uneasy allies wondering what else the nation’s leader didn’t know about. Starmer repeatedly told 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 department’s top 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. All the main opposition parties have called on Starmer to resign. Right-of-center Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said in the Mail on Sunday that he had “misled Parliament over Mandelson, misled the country and is taking the public for fools.” (