Five questions awaiting Starmer as he faces Commons over Mandelson scandal

Five questions awaiting Starmer as he faces Commons over Mandelson scandalJust nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleJennifer McKiernanPolitical reporterReutersPrime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is set to face a packed Commons later where he will address questions over Lord Mandelson's vetting.Sir Keir repeatedly told MPs that "full due process" was followed when Lord Mandelson was appointed as US ambassador in December 2024.The prime minister said he was "staggered" to find out last week that civil servants in the Foreign Office withheld information from him about red flags in the initial vetting process.Amid calls for him to resign from every opposition leader, Sir Keir pledged "true transparency" as he tried to set out what happened. Here are the main questions he needs to answer.1. What did Starmer know and when?Sir Keir told reporters that the first he knew about the red flags was on Tuesday last week, despite them being initially raised to the Foreign Office by UK Security and Vetting (UKSV) officials in January last year.He said the information was passed on to him by Dame Antonia Romeo, the head of the civil service, and Cat Little, the head of the Cabinet Office, who had received it two weeks prior.The documents had been revealed after the Conservatives tabled a motion which demanded the publication of all paperwork relating to the vetting process.The prime minister's head of press, Tim Allan, was contacted by the political editor of the Independent in September, with the paper publishing a story about Mandelson failing vetting later that month.The prime minister has insisted that his former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, and staff in Number 10 also did not know about the UKSV warnings.McSweeney quit his job over the Mandelson scandal in February.However, opposition MPs say it is not credible that neither Sir Keir, nor anyone on his team, could have remained in the dark for more than a year.2. Why did Starmer and his...