The key lines from Darren Jones’s spin operation on the morning round:
- Labour insists Starmer did NOT mislead Parliament because the ‘process’ (Starmer’s favourite word) that existed at the time was technically followed, so saying “due process was followed” to the House was correct. Right…
- Mandelson failing security vetting and the Foreign Office overruling it is a “failing of the state” and “utterly unacceptable“.
- Jones has “immediately suspended the rights” of government departments to overturn vetting refusals.
- He only found out about Mandelson failing vetting yesterday evening.
- Starmer was supposedly “furious” when he found out. Though clearly not furious enough to correct the record at PMQs…
- Mandelson was granted “developed vetting status“. So a man who failed security vetting had access to top secret material…
- Jones has asked for an urgent review into how many times the Foreign Office and other organisations have ignored security vetting advice.
- Neither Starmer nor any minister knew departments could overturn vetting refusals. Guido is calling this the Don’t Know Darren and Can’t Recall Keir double act…
Starmer’s defence yet again is that he simply did not know what was happening at the top levels of the government he is supposed to lead. No one in Labour has come up with a good reason why Starmer stayed quiet about this until the Guardian blew the whistle last night. He supposedly found out on Tuesday…
