Starmer Denies Pressuring UK Official Over Mandelson Role

Prime Minister Keir Starmer on April 22.

Photographer: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted his office didn’t pressure a senior Foreign Office official to rubber-stamp the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, disputing a key part of the bureaucrat’s testimony to a parliamentary committee a day earlier.

“No pressure existed whatsoever in relation to this case,” Starmer told prime minister’s questions on Wednesday.