LONDON: Downing Street applied constant pressure on civil servants to approve the appointment of Peter Mandelson as UK envoy to Washington and seemed to brush off security concerns, a sacked official told MPs on Tuesday.

A Downing Street spokesperson, however, denied this, saying there was “clearly a difference between asking for updates on an appointment process”, and being dismissive about vetting.

Government minister Darren Jones told an emergency debate in parliament on Tuesday that “no such pressure was applied beyond asking for the process to be completed as quickly as possible”.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office had a “dismissive attitude” towards the security vetting for its US envoy pick, said Olly Robbins, the foreign ministry’s most senior official before being fired last week.

Number 10 spokesperson says PM’s office only asked for updates on the appointment process

He was appearing at a watchdog parliamentary committee, as Starmer remained mired in the scandal over Labour grandee Mandelson’s appointment, which has haunted him for months.

The Foreign Office subsequently green-lit Mandelson — who had long been known to have close ties to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — despite the government now confirming independent vetting officials had recommended security clearance be denied.

That revelation, first reported by The Guardian last Thursday, has prompted fresh calls for Starmer to resign, after he previously insisted all “due process” had been followed.

The beleaguered British leader has blamed officials for deliberately keeping him in the dark about the security clearance issue, and on Monday denied misleading parliament with his previous statements on the scandal.

In his much-anticipated testimony, Robbins provided a more nuanced assessment, insisting he formally approved Mandelson after vetting officials — housed in another government department — concluded he was a “borderline” case.

“I was briefed that ... they were leaning towards recommending that clearance be denied but that the Foreign Office security department assessed that the risks ... could be managed and/or mitigated,” Robbins told MPs.

“I was also told that the risks did not relate to Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein,” he added.

UK media has reported that the concerns surrounded the links of Mandelson’s now-shuttered lobbying firm to Chinese companies. Robbins recalled when he became the foreign ministry’s top official in January 2025 there was a “very strong expectation ... coming from Number 10 (Downing Street) that he needed to be in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible”.

“I’m afraid what that translated into for my team in the Foreign Office was what I felt was a generally dismissive attitude to his vetting clearance,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2026