As a socialist I am not a fan of Labour under Starmer but neither am I in the camp of people here who have been baying for Starmer’s blood since 5 July 2024.
I am trying to understand what may have happened and take an objective view.
Reading various opinions from people who seem to understand the process, this from Calum Miller Lib Dem Foreign Affairs spokesperson is the most level-headed and unbiased one I have read
I held Developed Vetting for nearly ten years and spent three years at the heart of the Cabinet Office. I have never heard of a Developed Vetting denial being overruled. Here’s why…
Developed Vetting (DV) is close to the highest level of security clearance. You need it to read material classified as Top Secret. For regular civil servants, it can take up to six months.
An investigator - usually a retired police or intelligence officer - looks into all aspects of your life: your lifetime addresses and overseas travel, your financial affairs, your relationships.
This matters because if you are vulnerable to blackmail, bribery or extremism, you could give or sell secrets that put lives at risk. It is a high, serious bar. I have known cases where people failed and were never told why. I have never known one be overruled.
Scenario 1: someone in No10 let it be known that Mandelson HAD TO be appointed. When he failed his DV, someone senior in the FCDO decided that was not acceptable and insisted it was revised, without telling No10.
Scenario 2: Mandelson failed DV. No10 was informed, did not tell the PM, and someone senior in the FCDO insisted it be revised.
Scenario 3: Mandelson failed DV. No10 was informed, told the PM, and Starmer insisted it be revised.
None of these are good scenarios for Starmer. Either there is a culture of fear between No10 and FCDO that overrides national security concerns (1) or No10 overrides national security concerns without telling Starmer (2) or Starmer has lied (3).
(2) is the one being put forward as an explanation. I suspect McSweeney was involved somehow.
What we do know from the furore over Mandelson just a few weeks ago was that he was appointed because he was thought to be the best person to deal with Trump. Everybody apart from the FT praised the decision.
People are calling for Starmer’s head but this is the worst time to be changing leader while Trump's madness and the war in the Middle East continues.
Just as before we will have another two or three days of media onslaught. What will be achieved by it?
Epstein gets to the screw the UK from the grave. Brexit, the overthrow of Theresa May to be replaced by Johnson, the rise of Farage who is up to his neck in the whole Epstein/Orban/Bannon network. Why are some people so keen for this to keep happening?
