“The prime minister is either incompetent, gullible or a liar. Or all three.” So tweeted Stephen Flynn MP, the SNP Westminster leader, last week when it emerged that former US ambassador Peter Mandelson had failed Foreign Office security vetting.
Having repeatedly told parliament that “full due process was followed”, Sir Keir Starmer insists he would have blocked the appointment had he known. Now, he is set for a dramatic showdown in the House of Commons over an affair that won’t go away.
