Officials debate withholding Mandelson vetting documents from parliament

Exclusive: Opinions split on ‘unprecedented’ release of files, despite demand for ‘all papers’ related to ex-US ambassador’s appointmentRevealed: Mandelson failed vetting but Foreign Office overruled decisionFive key questions: who overruled decision to deny Mandelson security clearance?Senior government officials have been considering whether to withhold from parliament sensitive documents that show Peter Mandelson failed security vetting before he assumed the role of US ambassador, the Guardian can reveal.Any such decision could amount to an extraordinary breach of a parliamentary vote that ordered the release of “all papers” relevant to Mandelson’s appointment.The Guardian has revealed that Mandelson did not receive vetting clearance from security officials, but that their decision was overruled by the Foreign Office to ensure he could take up his post.According to multiple sources, officials across government have been in dispute over whether to release documents that would reveal those facts, and other information about Mandelson’s security vetting, to the parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC).The committee has been entrusted by parliament with the role of assessing the most sensitive papers relating to Mandelson’s appointment

Revealed: Mandelson failed vetting but Foreign Office overruled decision

Guardian investigation uncovers decision by UK security officials to deny clearance before Mandelson took up role as US ambassadorOfficials debate withholding Mandelson vetting documents from parliamentFive key questions: Who overruled the decision to deny Mandelson security clearance?Peter Mandelson failed his security vetting clearance but the decision was overruled by the Foreign Office to ensure he could take up his post as ambassador to the US, an investigation by the Guardian can reveal.According to multiple sources, Mandelson was initially denied clearance in late January 2025 after a developed vetting process, a highly confidential background check by security officials.Keir Starmer had by then announced he would be making Mandelson the UK’s chief diplomat in Washington, posing a dilemma for officials at the Foreign Office, who decided to use a rarely used authority to override the recommendation from security officials.Mandelson’s failure to secure vetting approval has not previously been publicly revealed, despite intense scrutiny over his appointment and the release by the government of 147 pages of documents supposed to shed light on the case.Further documents are due to be released

Blue Labour gets bluer with MP’s noble quest for a summer of sex | John Crace

We could almost be back in the San Francisco of the 1960s. Tune in, turn on, drop out. Make love not war. A hippy counterculture that turned its back on the American involvement in Vietnam. One determined to shape a new world order

CEO of bitcoin firm championed by Nigel Farage leaves company

The chief executive of a bitcoin company promoted by Nigel Farage has left his role as the venture attempts to convince investors that it is going to deliver “long-term value” for shareholders.Stack BTC was launched to much fanfare in March this year, with Farage and former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng becoming some of its first shareholders. The company says its founder is Paul Withers, a friend of the Reform UK leader who owns a gold bullion company that Farage has also promoted, Direct Bullion.However, Stack BTC is a renamed company which was founded in 2021 by Jai Patel, whose departure as chief executive was announced on Wednesday. The company, formerly called Kasei Investment Holdings, invested in cryptocurrency and a range of other digital assets

David Lammy still plays an important role in UK foreign policy – but he is not the only one

The first foreign official JD Vance met with after he returned from peace talks with Iran in Islamabad this week was not a diplomat or foreign policy official – it was David Lammy, the UK’s justice secretary and deputy prime minister.Lammy will follow his trip to Washington, where he saw the vice-president and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, with another to Barcelona, where he will represent the UK at a conference of global progressives, and then one to the Gulf.The whistle-stop diplomacy from the former foreign secretary has prompted questions in Whitehall over who is really driving the government’s foreign policy at a time when it is more important than ever.“Obviously the prime minister is in charge of the government’s foreign policy, especially when it is so important domestically as well,” said one government official.“Beneath him though there are quite a lot of people all of whom are doing slightly different jobs and who think of themselves as the real foreign secretary

Boosting military spending by slashing welfare is not the answer, senior Labour figures warn Reeves

Senior Labour figures have warned that Rachel Reeves must find alternative ways to increase military spending rather than slashing welfare, saying it risks diminishing public support for investment in defence.Pressure has been mounting from Labour backbenchers for the Treasury to urgently agree the defence investment plan (Dip) after George Robertson, a former Nato secretary general, said there was a “corrosive complacency” on defence funding.But MPs and peers said they did not back calls by the opposition for defence investment to be funded by cuts to welfare spending – saying there were other ways to secure the funds. The chancellor is understood to have proposed increasing the budget by less than £10bn over the next four years amid concerns that any more would be unaffordable.On Wednesday, Keir Starmer said he did not agree with the comments from Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary who co-authored a defence review for the government

Reeves tells Americans Trump’s Iran war is a ‘mistake’

Rachel Reeves has stepped up her criticism of Donald Trump’s war on Iran, describing it as a “mistake” that has destabilised the global economy and damaged living standards around the world.In a marked fraying of the transatlantic relationship, the British chancellor said Trump breaking off from diplomatic talks with Iran and launching airstrikes seemed to have left the president in a worse place than he started.“I think it was a mistake to end those [talks with Iran] and to enter into conflict, because I’m not convinced that we are safer today than we were a few weeks ago,” she told an event in Washington.Taking aim at the White House on the president’s home turf, the chancellor’s comments added to blunt criticism of him she made just before flying out on Tuesday, when she expressed frustration at the “folly” of his decision to go to war without a clear exit plan.Speaking as she prepared to meet global finance ministers at this week’s spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Reeves said the war had hit living standards in the UK and the US

Richard Bingley branches out from Tories, Labour and Ukip to stand for Reform

First he was a Tory councillor, before switching to Labour. Then came a stint in Ukip, followed by a return to the Conservatives that ended in ignominy amid a row over trees. And now, the much-travelled Richard Bingley is representing Reform.If Bingley is elected to Thurrock council in Essex on 7 May, it will represent something of a resurrection for the man with a case for being Britain’s most ideologically free-ranging politician, coming three years after he quit as leader of another council – Plymouth.Bingley, then in his second stint as a Tory, resigned after the authority cut down 110 mature trees in the centre of the city under the cover of darkness, having fenced them off and deployed security guards

Reeves tells Americans she does not know why they launched Iran war – as it happened

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, has told an American audience she does not know why they went to war against Iran.Reviving criticisms of Donald Trump she has already stated, she said that she was “not convinced that this conflict has made the world a safer place” and that Trump seemed to have ended up in a worse position than he was before the war started.Speaking at a CNBC event in Washington, where she is attending IMF meeting, Reeves said:double quotation markThere were diplomatic negotiations happening before this. So if the aim is to now to get diplomatic negotiations, well, they were already happening before the conflict started …We’ve never been clear about what the goals of this conflict is, which is why the impacts in our economy, but also here in the US economy and around the world, and particularly for our allies in the Gulf, like Saudi and Qatar and the UAE, are so immense.Reeves said that it was important to reopen the strait of Hormuz to reduce energy prices