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Athena Stavrou, Political Reporter
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Athena Stavrou, Political Reporter
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Mandelson crisis leaves Starmer's future in peril (again)
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It's the political scandal that Sir Keir Starmer cannot get away from.
The prime minister is once again fighting for his political life over his ill-considered appointment of Lord Peter Mandelson as Britain's US ambassador.
The latest in a string of revelations has seen the prime minister face calls to resign, after it emerged the Foreign Office overruled the recommendation from the security servic that Mandelson not be handed the top job.
But despite the turmoil, Sir Keir has refused to step down, insisting he was not told about the decision until this week.
This comes despite The Independent having first put the claims to No 10 seven months ago.
The accusations of a cover-up hung over Sir Keir as he tried to turn his attention to the world stage in Paris on Friday, where he met with world leaders in Paris to discuss his plan for the Strait of Hormuz - before they were told by Donald Trump to "stay away".
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Despite calls for the prime minister to go, his opponents have only two lines of attack – that he knew about Mandelson failed vetting and thus lied to parliament, or that he wasn’t told, which makes him incompetent. He won’t be resigning any time soon, says Sean O’Grady
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All the signs were indicating that Labour was, believe it or not, on the right track – then the US attacked Iran. But the chancellor still has some (albeit limited) options, says James Moore
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I worked as a diplomat for a more than a decade – the suggestion that the Foreign Office failed to tell Downing Street that Peter Mandelson had failed security vetting is too fantastical to be the whole story, writes Ameer Kotecha
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What else you need to know
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- Donald Trump has told “useless” Nato to stay away from the Strait of Hormuz after the UK and France announced they would work to protect shipping “as soon as conditions allow”.
- The UK’s elections watchdog has launched a deepfake detection scheme in a bid to crackdown on AI fakes ahead of the May elections.
- The European Union is poised to coordinate a release of jet fuel stocks if disruptions to the Strait of Hormuz continue, an EU spokesperson informed Reuters on Friday, even as Iran temporarily reopened the vital waterway.
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Keir Starmer plays the ignorance card… good luck with that
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John Rentoul, Chief Political Commentator
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John Rentoul, Chief Political Commentator
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My view is that the reason the prime minister didn't know that Peter Mandelson initially failed his vetting is that he didn't want to know.
He and Morgan McSweeney, his chief of staff, were so desperate to have Mandelson as ambassador to Washington that the foreign office overruled the security services to deliver what the prime minister wanted without implicating him in the decision.
Read it here.
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UK ‘badly exposed’ and ‘needs 10 years to rebuild its defence’
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The former head of the armed forces has sent a stark warning to Sir Keir Starmer, claiming the UK needs a decade to rebuild its defence even if the prime minister “shows the leadership” to restart investment now.
Here’s what you had to say:
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The UK should stop trying to be a world player, we are not a big country and still cling to the history of our heydays. We need to accept we are a middle power, we don't have the funds or manpower to be a top table player.
Harry
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Conservative severe cuts to military spending over the previous 14 years has placed the UK in a precarious state, and the record-high national debt and high tax levels they bequeathed to the nation makes it very difficult to recover from the dire mess they left.
WhatServices
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‘Not ready for war’: Can Starmer protect the UK?
Since the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, the UK has stopped 39 late-stage terror plots. So why does our security look strong, while our defence appears exposed? And what, exactly, is the difference?
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‘Not ready for war’: Can Starmer protect the UK?
Since the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing, the UK has stopped 39 late-stage terror plots. So why does our security look strong, while our defence appears exposed? And what, exactly, is the difference?
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