Liz Kendall said Keir Starmer should not lose his job over Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador because he has “made the right calls” on the big issues facing the country.
The science and technology secretary was asked by Trevor Phillips on Sky if Starmer’s poor judgment in appointing Mandelson was the root of the issue.
She replied: “I don’t agree with that. I think the failure of judgment here was the failure to tell the prime minister that Peter Mandelson, who actually is responsible for all of this … the person that I am angry at is Peter Mandelson.”
Kendall went on to say Starmer had “absolutely not” ignored Jeffrey Epstein’s victims by making the appointment, and said she supported him in the decisions he had made over many big issues.
She said: “The prime minister, on the big calls facing this country, has made the right calls.”
She added: “Because on the fundamental judgments facing this country, whether it’s on international issues, rebuilding our relationship with the EU, saying ‘we won’t get involved in the war’, investing in our defence, or whether it’s on domestic issues, lifting children out of poverty, tackling violence against women and girls, all of the big fundamental issues facing this country, the prime minister has made the right call.”
Liz Kendall has repeated David Lammy’s claim the prime minister would have stopped Peter Mandelson’s appointment if he had known the peer had failed security vetting.
Speaking to Trevor Phillips on Sky News on Sunday, the science and technology said Keir Starmer was a “man of integrity”.
She “completely refuted” that Starmer would do anything to put the UK at risk.
Kendall said: “He is a man of integrity and there is no way he would have proceeded with that, whatever the so-called embarrassment. He would have thought that was wrong, and he would not have done.”
She had earlier said Sir Olly Robbins was “wrong” not to tell Starmer or the foreign secretary, that UK security vetting had advised against the appointment and the issue was a “serious mistake”.
“I think that was wrong at the start, and then subsequently wrong because as you well know Trevor, the prime minister and ministers made a series of statements in parliament about this about it. I think that was a failure, and that’s why he lost the confidence of the prime minister and foreign secretary,” Kendall said.
Keir Starmer faces yet another difficult day as prime minister as questions about his leadership swirl caused by the Peter Mandelson saga this morning, although his cabinet colleagues are rallying around him.
Starmer’s science and technology secretary, Liz Kendall, will speak to the BBC this morning as the fallout from Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US continues.
The deputy prime minister David Lammy said on Saturday that Starmer would have stopped Mandelson from taking up the role if he had known he had failed security vetting. He is among numerous ministers who have spoken out in support of the prime minister since the news on Thursday that Mandelson had not passed the security checks process.
Last night the Sunday Times reported the reason Mandelson failed the vetting was because the biggest client of his lobbying firm, Global Counsel, was a firm linked to the Chinese military.
Starmer has faced renewed calls to resign from opponents since the latest development was reported, and the pressure is expected to continue with Reform UK’s finance spokesperson Robert Jenrick, and Conservative shadow minister Alex Burghart are due to speak to the BBC this morning.
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