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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has insisted that he would not resign over the scandal surrounding Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the United States.
Mandelson was appointed UK ambassador to the United States in early 2025, but was dismissed in September 2025 after details emerged about his ties to Jeffrey Epstein and issues uncovered during vetting.
UK lawmakers accuse Starmer of misleading them on Mandelson’s appointment. The foreign ministry’s most senior official, Olly Robbins, testified that Starmer’s office pressured officials to approve Mandelson quickly, alleging that formal vetting procedures were rushed.
Robbins described the tone not as “just please get this done quickly” but “get it done”.
“I think, a pretty unmistakable feeling,” he said.
Starmer, who spoke to British lawmakers a day after Robbins presented evidence to a parliamentary committee, accused Robbins of failing to tell him about problems that emerged during Mandelson’s security clearance.
Starmer told lawmakers that Robbins clearly answered “no” when asked if he had shared the recommendation “with me, number 10 or any other ministers”.
“That puts to bed all the allegations levelled at me … in relation to dishonesty,” he said, adding that opposition politicians said that it must have been shared with him but was not.
Aside from allegedly having ties with Epstein, a document proposed during the appointment process reportedly said Mandelson remained on the board of the Kremlin-linked defence company, Systema.
The Mandelson row has caused an uproar among UK lawmakers who have dismissed the Prime Minister’s denial.
Main opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch demanded to know why he had not ditched the appointment when he found out about other controversial issues.
“The prime minister told us on Monday that he’d read that due diligence report. Why did the prime minister want to make a man with links to the Kremlin our ambassador in Washington?” she added.
