Downing Street has published Chris Wormald’s letter to Starmer from September 2025:
APPOINTMENT AND WITHDRAWAL FROM POST OF HMA WASHINGTON
As we discussed, I have looked into whether the correct process was followed for both the appointment of the previous HMA Washington, Peter Mandelson, and the process around your decision to withdraw him from post.
The process for his appointment was unusual but not irregular. This was a direct Prime Ministerial appointment from outside both the Diplomatic and Home Civil Service. You received advice from my predecessor on 11 November 2024 before deciding on this type of appointment. That advice explained your right to make such an appointment and the process for doing so but did not give specific advice on candidates. The process that took place followed the advice my predecessor gave in particular “for them to acquire the necessary security clearances and do due diligence on any potential conflicts of interest or other issues of which you should be aware before confirming your choice.” All processes set out by my predecessor took place. Two actions, the security vetting and the process on conflicts of interest took place after the decision to appoint. I do not however consider that to be material as the vetting process was complete before the previous HMA Washington took up post on 10 February 2025, and it is more usual for security vetting to happen after appointment.
Following the advice from my predecessor, the Propriety and Ethics Team (PET) conducted an open-source due diligence report on Lord Mandelson. This identified his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein as a reputational risk. Your special advisers then obtained further assurances from Lord Mandelson on this specific issue. No evidence has come to light suggesting concerns were raised with you or my predecessor on national security grounds as part of the pre-appointment timeline. On 18 December 2024 your office wrote to the previous Permanent Under-Secretary at the FCDO instructing him to seek The King’s approval for the appointment, which was duly sought later the same day.
The appointment was announced on 20 December 2024. The FCDO immediately commenced the national security vetting process, submitting Lord Mandelson as a priority candidate for Developed Vetting to the UK Security Vetting Agency. Clearance was duly given before he commenced his posting on 10 February 2025. The FCDO also immediately took on the task of working with Lord Mandelson to understand and mitigate conflicts of interest in advance of his departure for Washington.
Taken together this has met all of the actions set out in my predecessor’s advice of 11 November.
Your decision to withdraw Lord Mandelson as HMA Washington was taken in light of your belief that his account of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein at the time of appointment had been less than totally candid, and that his replies on questions posed by his line manager, the FCDO Permanent Under-Secretary, left open the possibility that further damaging revelations would ensue. The FCDO is now in correspondence with Lord Mandelson about the termination of his contract.
The evidence I have reviewed leads me to conclude that appropriate processes were followed in both the appointment and withdrawal of the former HMA Washington.
I will keep this under review if any further evidence emerges.
SIR CHRIS WORMALD KCB Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service
Red Wall Labour backbencher Jonathan Brash told GB News that Starmer should resign:
“I’m completely fed up about it, and I think it’s got to the point now where I genuinely think that, as far as the Prime Minister is concerned, it’s not a case of if, it’s when.”