Morgan McSweeney sat before a Westminster committee at 11:00 BST to offer a rare public confession. The former top advisor to Sir Keir Starmer admitted he made a "serious mistake" in pushing for Lord Mandelson’s appointment to Washington. Mandelson was sacked in September 2025 over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, but the social stench of the vetting scandal is still clogging the corridors of power. Sir Philip Barton, the former Foreign Office boss, told the committee that Downing Street had been "uninterested" in the vetting process from the start.

The scandal has exposed a frantic rush to bypass security protocols. Sir Olly Robbins, Barton’s successor, previously claimed the Foreign Office faced "constant pressure" to clear Mandelson before Trump’s inauguration. McSweeney acknowledged that "public appearances" would have been better if he hadn't personally handled follow-up questions for his friend. Mandelson had already been granted access to "highly classified briefings" on a case-by-case basis before his security clearance was even confirmed.

This paper notes that treason is a curiosity, but bad credit is a crime. The sight of a Starmer advisor admitting to bypassing security for an Epstein associate is a low-class look for any government. The committee has heard enough to know that the VIP guest list at the Foreign Office was being handled like a tacky nightclub door. The focus was never on security; it was on making sure the Lord could start his job by the time the gold paint was dry in DC.