Keir Starmer was dubbed 'morally bankrupt' on Thursday night after blaming MI5 for failing to vet Peter Mandelson properly.
Fighting for survival amid a revolt over his handling of the scandal, the Prime Minister criticised the 'vetting carried out independently by the security services' on the disgraced Labour peer, suggesting the process needs to be looked at.
But his comments provoked a furious backlash as critics pointed out Sir Keir had already approved and announced Mandelson as the new ambassador to Washington before he was subject to in-depth national security vetting.
MI5 did not carry out checks on Mandelson - it was the job of the Cabinet Office, with limited input from spies.
On Thursday, in a desperate bid to hold on to his dwindling authority, the PM sought to present himself as a victim of Mandelson's lies, claiming he had honestly believed his assurances that he 'barely knew' Jeffrey Epstein.
But the suggestion that Sir Keir was somehow blind to the true nature of their relationship and that MI5 should have dug deeper only heightened anger among MPs who accused him of a 'grubby attempt to shift blame'.
At the time of Mandelson's appointment last February, there was a wealth of evidence in the public domain about his close friendship with paedophile Epstein.
Tory security spokesman Alicia Kearns said: 'Keir Starmer exposes again his abject lack of integrity. Blaming our security services when he rail-roaded Mandelson into post, and only afterwards tasked the Cabinet Office to whitewash it, is morally bankrupt.
No comments:
Post a Comment