Starmer Faces Backlash Over Mandelson's Washington Trip

0:00On April 17, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is catching major backlash for sending Lord Mandelson to Washington despite the guy's security vetting. Getting flagged as a fail. The foreign office overruled it anyway, but now, the top civil servant there, Sir Ali Robbins, just lost his job over the whole fiasco. Thursday afternoon kicked off the drama when the Guardian broke the story right around 3 pm British summertime. Government offices when radio silent for nearly 3 hours, no calls, no comments, which only made everyone think there was fire behind the smoke. Opposition parties wasted no time, hitting the cameras to blast Starmer for misleading parliament and demanding his resignation if he knew. Even inside labor, MPs are reeling. One called it blissfully unaware at best. Another straight-up lost for words. Turns out, the Prime Minister, ministers, and even Mandelson himself had zero heads up on the vetting issue. Officials say the foreign office knew the conclusion, but dropped the ball on informing the boss,

1:03or Foreign Secretary David Lamy. This mess is piling pressure on Starmer at the worst possible time, and sources say expect more fallout as questions keep mounting.