Cabinet Office Inquiry on Mandelson Had ‘No New Information,’ Govt Claims

The government is defending the integrity of its vetting process by claiming that the formal Cabinet Office inquiry into Peter Mandelson’s appointment provided “no further information apart from what was already in the public domain.” This statement, made by Business Secretary Peter Kyle, attempts to shield the civil service from blame in the escalating scandal.
According to this account, the independent inquiry performed its function correctly, presenting the Prime Minister with a summary of known facts, including Mandelson’s controversial links to Jeffrey Epstein. The process, however, did not unearth the private emails that would later prove to be his undoing.
This places the responsibility for the appointment squarely on the “political process” that followed in No. 10. The decision to proceed was a political judgment call made by the Prime Minister and his team, based on an assessment of the publicly known risks versus the perceived diplomatic benefits.
While this may protect the Cabinet Office, it intensifies the political pressure on Downing Street. It confirms that the Prime Minister was aware of the potential for controversy but chose to appoint Mandelson anyway, a decision that now appears reckless given the catastrophic outcome.