Key points as MPs question former Foreign Office boss on Mandelson vetting row

Key points as MPs question former Foreign Office boss on Mandelson vetting row6 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleKate WhannelPolitical reporterUK Parliament/ PAThe Foreign Affairs Committee has been hearing evidence about the vetting of Lord Mandelson to be the UK's ambassador to the United States.The prime minister sacked Lord Mandelson from the role in September 2025 over his links to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but has been facing ongoing questions about the appointment ever since.Sir Keir Starmer's former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney will give evidence to the committee at 11:00 BST but first it heard from Sir Philip Barton, who was the senior civil servant at the Foreign Office, when the PM decided to send Lord Mandelson to Washington DC. Here are the key points from his evidence so far.No consultation on Mandelson appointment Sir Philip said the first time he was aware of the decision to appoint Lord Mandelson was on 15 December 2024 - five days before the prime minister publicly announced it. Asked if he believed he should have been consulted about the appointment, Sir Philip said the job was one of the UK's "major" diplomatic posts and that he thought it was "reasonable" that he should have been involved. But he also noted that it was a political appointment rather than an internal civil servant recruitment and concluded he was "a bit conflicted" on the question. He later said that there had been "no space or avenue or mechanism" to express any concerns he might have felt about the appointment.Concerns about 'toxic' Epstein links Conservative MP Aphra Brandreth asked Sir Philip if he'd been asked, would he have expressed worries about picking Lord Mandelson.He replied he was worried that Lord Mandelson's links to Epstein "could become a problem".He later said he did not know what further information would come out about the friendship between t...