LONDON — The office of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer applied “constant pressure” on bureaucrats to grant Peter Mandelson the security clearance he needed to become the ambassador to Washington, a senior civil servant testified Tuesday, as revelations about Mandelson’s appointment and his connections to Jeffrey Epstein continue to roil British politics and threaten to unseat Starmer.
Starmer, who faced his own furious grilling in the House of Commons on Monday, has insisted he was unaware that Mandelson had raised red flags in the security review over his connections to the American financier and convicted sex offender and that civil servants in the Foreign Office had overruled the findings.
Sir Oliver Robbins, whom Starmer effectively fired as the Foreign Office’s top civil servant last week over the revelations, said that officials in the prime minister’s office made it clear through frequent phone calls that they were eager to have Mandelson cleared and heading to Washington for the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.
But Robbins also denied that “this atmosphere of pressure and dismissiveness” affected the outcome of the vetting process that unfolded in January 2025. Under questioning before a parliamentary committee, he confirmed reports that security officials had raised concerns about Mandelson’s fitness for the high-level clearance the job required. But he said the officials presented those findings — which were unrelated to Epstein — as only “borderline” concerns and said that any risks could be mitigated.
Robbins, who said he never communicated with Starmer directly, defended his ultimate decision to grant Mandelson’s clearance in what he described as a “routine” process.
Starmer maintains that he was never told about the red flags security officials had raised.
Calls for Starmer to step down have erupted from rivals across the political spectrum who say the episode exposes the prime minister as either lying or incompetent. Members of his own party, who fear the wrath of voters in local elections next month, are telling reporters that the prime minister might have to go.
Starmer is in the sharpest peril of his 21 months in office, analysts say, raising the possibility that Epstein connections could bring down the head of government of America’s closest ally — far outstripping their impact in the United States.
“He is in, I think, a fair amount of danger,” said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. “Things have been fairly brutal for him today in the House of Commons.”
In the U.S., investigators have been reluctant to open new investigations into ever-expanding revelations of Epstein’s connections to politicians from millions of pages of documents released last year by the U.S. Justice Department.
But in Europe, serial bombshells have sparked resignations, raids and other legal actions, including the brief detention in Februaryof Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles III, on suspicion of Epstein-related misconduct in office.
Mandelson was recalled from Washington, fired and ejected from the Labour Partyafter emails showed that his friendship with Epstein had continued after the financier was convicted in 2008 of soliciting sex from a minor. In a note included in a redacted “birthday book” allegedly given to Epstein, Mandelson described him as his “best pal.”
When subsequent emails suggested Mandelson had passed sensitive British government information to Epstein in 2009, British police arrested him in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He was released without bail conditions as the investigation continues.
The latest revelations, uncovered last week in a scoop by the Guardian, showed that Mandelson was initially not granted clearance for his return to the ambassador’s role in late January 2025 — after Starmer had already announced his appointment to coincide with the approaching inauguration of President Donald Trump — following a confidential background check by security officials. Foreign Office officials, the Guardian reported, then reached for a rarely used authority to override the recommendation, clearing Mandelson for a post he held just seven months before being fired when the depth of his ties to Epstein became undeniable.
Starmer forced Robbins to resign in light of the revelations, leading critics to accuse Starmer of sacrificing him as a scapegoat. Robbins on Tuesday said he had followed normal steps, and that confidentiality rules prohibited him from communicating the details of the security review to the prime minister’s office.
The prime minister has denied “intentionally” misleading Parliament by previously asserting that full due process had been followed.
“I know many members across the House will find these facts to be incredible,” Starmer told MPs Monday. They did, and they laughed. But Starmer persisted: “The fact that I wasn’t told when I said to Parliament that due process had been followed is unforgivable. But am I furious that I wasn’t told? Yes, I am.”
It was far from clear whether Starmer can save himself. His rivals call his assertions of ignorance unbelievable and unforgivable and are pressing the attack against an already historically unpopular prime minister.
“This leaves us with two possibilities: Either the prime minister is lying, or he is so incompetent that he is unfit to run the country,” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said.
Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats party, slammed Starmer’s “catastrophic misjudgment” and demanded a probe by the government’s ethics watchdog for alleged breaches of the Ministerial Code.
Cracks have begun to open within Labour. Lord Maurice Glasman, founder of the Blue Labour movement — a culturally conservative faction within the party — became the most senior figure in Labour to call for Starmer’s resignation, telling the Telegraph: “He cannot conceivably continue as a credible prime minister any longer. And that’s all because he cannot say, ‘I made a mistake, I’m sorry.’”
British media outlets have reported that Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner held a “secret meeting” Friday, fueling speculation about potential leadership contenders in the wings.
Bale, the political scientist, said Starmer might be able to cling to his job in the short term, especially if no one can produce concrete evidence that he knew about the vetting process override.
But the prime minister’s grip on power could weaken as time goes on, Bale said. Labour is already expected to lose local council seats in elections scheduled for May 7 in England and Wales. Polls have shown the party losing ground in recent months to the ascendant anti-immigration Reform UK party and the Green Party.
Analysts said Labour had just begun to regain some momentum, in part because of Reform founder Nigel Farage’s early backing for the U.S. and Israeli war in Iran, which is deeply unpopular here. The return of the Epstein-Mandelson scandal just days before the vote threatens to be another setback.
“It’s difficult to believe that he’ll last much longer than the summer,” Bale said. “He will be the fall guy for the terrible results that Labour look like they’re going to suffer in May. By that time, it may be that two or three of the other contenders within the party feel ready to make a challenge to his leadership.”
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