UK vetting agency recommended denying Mandelson US-ambassador clearance over ties to figures in China, Russia and Israel
A nine-page UK Security Vetting summary from January 2025, reported by the Guardian, shows the agency recommended denying Peter Mandelson clearance to become ambassador to the US -- flagging his ties to China's finance minister Lan Fo'an, the sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and a former Israeli intelligence general, Tamir Hayman, along with a 1 million pound loan for an Israeli startup and a potentially compromising close relationship. Foreign Office permanent secretary Olly Robbins overrode the recommendation as "borderline," subject to mitigations. Emily Thornberry, Iain Duncan Smith and Ed Davey said the disclosures made the "borderline" account hard to credit and demanded to know why the posting was approved.
The Guardian's Paul Lewis, Henry Dyer and Pippa Crerar reported that United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) concluded Peter Mandelson should be denied clearance shortly before he took up his post as Britain's ambassador to the US. According to multiple sources who spoke anonymously, the agency flagged his links to China's minister of finance, Lan Fo'an, the sanctions-hit Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, and a former Israeli military intelligence general, Tamir Hayman. It also noted a very close relationship with a fourth individual, who is British, that could be compromising; a 1 million pound loan Mandelson received to invest in an Israeli startup; and that he appeared "naive about the risk that historical relationships with other individuals could be exploited." The concerns were contained in a nine-page UKSV summary of his vetting file dated January 2025.
UKSV only made a recommendation; the final decision rested with Olly Robbins, permanent secretary at the Foreign Office. Robbins told MPs last month that, given the decision was "borderline," he accepted it should be allowed subject to certain mitigations being put in place.
Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said the new details made the "borderline" characterisation hard to believe. "It makes me very angry that the security of our country seemed to be of so little importance to those pushing for, or those being pushed to approve, the appointment of Mandelson," she told the Guardian, adding that the disclosures made "Olly Robbins' assertion that he understood the recommendation to be 'borderline' pretty incredible." She also questioned why Morgan McSweeney had been so keen to guide "his friend" through completing the conflict-of-interest forms.
Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader, said the revelations made the appointment harder to understand: "The more that is unearthed about this man, the more you come back to the single big question, which is what in hell was so important about him that the prime minister overrode all this to send him to Washington, given his appalling security situation and terrible connections with China, Russia and others." Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader, called it an "utter disgrace" that the government was still trying to withhold the vetting summary, saying Number 10 "knew full well about Mandelson's business relationships with China and Russia, and indeed with Jeffrey Epstein too," and that "glaring warning signs were wilfully ignored, driven by a desperate desire to pander to the bully in the White House."
The disclosures land after Mandelson's departure from the Washington embassy, a post now held by Christian Turner.