PM and foreign secretary were nowhere in sight as hapless Stephen Doughty faced the Commons over Peter Mandelson
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If only there had been some kind of clue. The tiniest of hints that Peter Mandelson might not have been a suitable candidate to act as the UK ambassador in Washington.
Like being forced to resign from the cabinet over a failure to disclose a loan from Geoffrey Robinson. Like being forced to resign from the cabinet a second time over allegations of trying to procure a passport for the Hinduja brothers. Like his financial arrangements with the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Like his friendship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
But no. Keir Starmer and the civil service vetting committee apparently looked at all this and thought: “You know what? That’s just what we need. We can’t think of anyone better to be our US ambassador.” The very faults that might have disqualified other candidates became a huge positive for Mandy. What was needed when dealing with Donald Trump was someone utterly shameless in his sycophancy. A man with a long history of going weak at the knees in the presence of extreme wealth.
