Starmer Faces Heat Over Mandelson Vetting Scandal

0:00On April 20, Kear Starmer's catching heat again over that Mandelson vetting mess with the top foreign office civil servant he fired now facing. Tough questions from MPs on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Sir Olly Robbins, Theresa May's old Brexit guru, got the boot after not flagging security red flags on Peter Mandelson's U.S. Ambassador appointment. Robbins' team says he couldn't spill details because of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act from 2010. But the government dropped. A legal note saying civil servants could at least tip off about the issues. Colleagues are rallying hard for him, calling the last few days brutal, and saying he's crushed despite his rock-solid rep in Whitehall for straight-up integrity. He's said to tell MPs that Starmer knew all about Mandelson's ties to Jeffrey Epstein and his business in Russia and China before picking him anyway. Meanwhile, other officials like Antonio Romeo and Cat Little sat on the info for weeks, and Starmer's defending them as acting by the book after, getting legal advice.

1:02This hearing could plug some gaps in the story, or widen the cracks, keeping the pressure on Starmer's team as everyone watches how it plays out.