DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Slippery Starmer must now tell the truth
Downing Street is asking the British people to swallow quite implausible claims as the saga of Peter Mandelson becomes even murkier.
The Government insisted on Thursday that neither Keir Starmer nor any of his ministers knew Mandelson failed vetting procedures before his appointment as Britain's ambassador to Washington DC.
Ministers were also completely in the dark, it is claimed, about the fact that Foreign Office officials decided to overrule such an important vetting verdict.
That outcome cleared the way for Mandelson to take up his plum diplomatic role, despite well-known concerns over his long friendship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Can it really be true that civil servants kept the security services' conclusions from the Prime Minister? Why would senior officials risk such secretive steps?
They would have known that doing so would be not only a dereliction of duty but also a potential national security risk.
The Government's version of events appears to be an almost inconceivable tall tale. We need to know with urgency whether it is the whole, unexpurgated truth, or whether Mandelson was granted vetted status on a 'nod and a wink' by someone else, somewhere in government.
The Conservatives, Reform and the Liberal Democrats have all called for the Prime Minister's resignation. And Labour's Dame Emily Thornberry, chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, was one of the first in her party to stick the boot in on Thursday night.
The Government insisted on Thursday that neither Keir Starmer nor any of his ministers knew Mandelson failed vetting procedures before his appointment as Britain's ambassador to Washington DC
She asked who overrode the vetting concerns, why MPs had been 'kept in the dark' and added: 'People need to stop messing us about and tell us the truth.'
Throughout this sorry affair, Sir Keir has been slippery and disingenuous.
If these latest revelations prove anything less than truthful, he will have no choice but to resign in disgrace.
Lost opportunity
Despite his barely concealed leadership ambitions, Wes Streeting has missed an opportunity to appear prime ministerial.
When the Health Secretary was asked on Thursday whether he supported diverting funds from the soaring welfare bill to the under-funded Ministry of Defence, he could only summon the courage to go halfway.
His remarks gave the appearance of backing this obvious solution to the terrible state of Britain's military, without actually advocating it explicitly.
What he should have done, of course, was to give a resounding 'Yes' to the question of whether Labour needs to take a hard look at the way it spends taxpayers' money.
There will be no meaningful revision of these warped priorities under Sir Keir's gutless leadership. And on the evidence of his remarks, Mr Streeting also lacks the backbone to speak the obvious truth.
Green light for liars
An investigation by the BBC exposed how crooked legal advisers encourage migrants to pretend to be either gay or victims of domestic violence to claim asylum.
Rather than accepting the reports as vital further evidence of a corrupt system, the Green Party castigated the broadcaster for 'heightening the hostile environment facing those claiming asylum'.
If the Greens were to get anywhere near the corridors of power, the pro-immigration lobby would seize upon such naivety – and Britain's derisory border controls would be even worse than they are now.
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