Ministers rally around Keir Starmer as leadership
questions grow over Mandelson saga – UK politics live
The prime minister’s leadership is still in the
spotlight after Mandelson was appointed US ambassador after he failed security
vetting
Harry
Taylor
Sun 19
Apr 2026 09.25 BST
8m ago
09.25 BST
Keir
Starmer would have withdrawn Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the
US if he had known he had not passed security vetting, Liz Kendall said, even
if it was close to Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Kendall
told Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One that Starmer would have rescinded the job
offer if he had been told – regardless of the timing ahead of Trump taking up
the Presidency.
She said:
“If the prime minister had known that UK security vetting had not cleared him,
the appointment would have been withdrawn.
“It
would’t have mattered how close that was to the president’s inauguration or any
of that, I believe that because there is no way that the prime minister would
have continued with it, had he known the facts that he now knows.”
26m ago
09.07 BST
Liz
Kendall said Keir Starmer should not lose his job over Peter Mandelson’s
appointment as US ambassador because he has “made the right calls” on the big
issues facing the country.
The
science and technology secretary was asked by Trevor Phillips on Sky if
Starmer’s poor judgment in appointing Mandelson was the root of the issue.
She
replied: “I don’t agree with that. I think the failure of judgment here was the
failure to tell the prime minister that Peter Mandelson, who actually is
responsible for all of this … the person that I am angry at is Peter
Mandelson.”
Kendall
went on to say Starmer had “absolutely not” ignored Jeffrey Epstein’s victims
by making the appointment, and said she supported him in the decisions he had
made over many big issues.
She said:
“The prime minister, on the big calls facing this country, has made the right
calls.”
She
added: “Because on the fundamental judgments facing this country, whether it’s
on international issues, rebuilding our relationship with the EU, saying ‘we
won’t get involved in the war’, investing in our defence, or whether it’s on
domestic issues, lifting children out of poverty, tackling violence against
women and girls, all of the big fundamental issues facing this country, the
prime minister has made the right call.”
39m ago
08.54 BST
Liz
Kendall has repeated David Lammy’s claim the prime minister would have stopped
Peter Mandelson’s appointment if he had known the peer had failed security
vetting.
Speaking
to Trevor Phillips on Sky News on Sunday, the science and technology said Keir
Starmer was a “man of integrity”.
She
“completely refuted” that Starmer would do anything to put the UK at risk.
Kendall
said: “He is a man of integrity and there is no way he would have proceeded
with that, whatever the so-called embarrassment. He would have thought that was
wrong, and he would not have done.”
She had
earlier said Sir Olly Robbins was “wrong” not to tell Starmer or the foreign
secretary, that UK security vetting had advised against the appointment and the
issue was a “serious mistake”.
“I think
that was wrong at the start, and then subsequently wrong because as you well
know Trevor, the prime minister and ministers made a series of statements in
parliament about this about it. I think that was a failure, and that’s why he
lost the confidence of the prime minister and foreign secretary,” Kendall said.
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