Many people are sick to the back teeth of the Peter Mandelson saga.
I can understand why- there is an unending stream of detail about who wrote what to whom, and when.
That’s as nothing compared with the speculation about what was said, for which there is no audit trail.
Yet I do understand why the Westminster political-media bubble has gone into a feeding frenzy and is feasting upon itself.
This is about transparency, versus what some might call the “deep state”.
The Prime Minister decided- despite Mandelson’s well-documented links with Epstein and in China – that Mandelson should become the UK’s ambassador to Donald Trump’s United States.
Mandelson’s appointment was leaked to the media months before it was to take place, which bounced No 10 Downing Street into confirming it.
By the time UK Security Vetting advised the Foreign Office against the appointment, it was too late; Mandelson was already weeks into the job.
Keir Starmer, or at least his former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, wanted Mandelson as UK ambassador to the US.
The most senior Foreign Office official lost his job last week – and the FCDO was condemned – for having withheld information that would not have been welcome in No 10.
This is all a bit close to home for people who follow politics in our area.
We remember the saga of Boris Johnson being forced to apologise to the House of Commons for lying repeatedly over social gatherings that took place in No 10, during lockdown.
Partygate had an added cutting edge to it – we had obeyed the rules, while our political masters had not.
Boris Johnson resigned in July 2022.
Johnson was forced out just two weeks after the Tiverton & Honiton by-election.
Johnson had faced a massive revolt from his own backbench MPs, some of whom were disgusted with his behaviour, but all of whom could see what might happen to their own political fortunes at the next General Election, when they looked at what had happened in mid- and East Devon.
This government has been trying to tighten up the rules on honesty in the public sector.
Last year, a new legal Duty of Candour, known as the Hillsborough Law, was introduced to Parliament, following the outrageous cover-up by South Yorkshire Police at that terrible football disaster at Hillsborough Stadium.
If the Public Office (Accountability) Bill becomes law, officials would be legally obliged to always act with honesty and integrity -with criminal sanctions for egregious breaches.
Ironically, the Keir Starmer who has championed this ‘duty of candour’ legislation has lacked curiosity.
He has lacked curiosity about the candour of some of those officials, advisors, and one ambassador, with whom he worked most closely.
East Devon Watch 