Starmer to 'admit' inadvertently misleading MPs over Mandelson

(Sharecast News) - Beleaguered UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer was preparing to face parliament on Monday and admit he inadvertently misled parliament over the vetting of former ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson. Starmer is under intense pressure to resign amid the long-running saga surrounding Mandelson and his links to dead paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The Guardian last week reported the Foreign Office overruled a decision to deny Mandelson's security vetting clearance for the Washington job. The outcry saw Starmer fire the department's head Olly Robbins.

Starmer's spokesperson on Monday said the prime minister would "never knowingly mislead parliament or the public" and that he was himself misled, the paper reported.

Robbins is scheduled to give his own account of events in testimony to the all-party Foreign Affairs Committee.

The ruling Labour Party, trailing heavily in the polls after a series of policy blunders, faces an electoral bloodbath for the party in May's contests in local English council elections as well as the Scottish and Welsh parliaments.

Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander told Sky News he expected Starmer to survive to lead Labour into the next general election "but there are no certainties" in politics.

Starmer's office issued a statement on Sunday night saying that although the decision on vetting was taken by civil servants there was nothing in the law to prevent ministers being told.

"There is nothing in the guidance which prevented information being shared in this scenario, in a proportionate and necessary way and subject to the appropriate procedural steps," the statement on the Constitutional Reform & Governance Act said.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com