I think Rayner is making a speech today. Just getting in some early practice before the post locals election challenge (tax case resolution also making a difference in the timing)
From what I've picked up, Starmer is hiding behind no one explicitly telling him that part of the vetting had failed.
Never mind that Mandelson was the mentor of McSweeney, who pushed for his appointment and persuaded Starmer. Without much effort, they announced him prior to the conclusion of vetting.
Starmer put having a political operator and chum over any concerns he had over publically known links to Epstein.
Another reason he didn't get told about the vetting failure, was that he was already fully aware of the reasons why it failed, which were the Russia and China links.
There was nothing new in there, that would have changed his mind, no matter what ministers say now. Because he already knew.
Robbins will shed more light on it.
- The level of detail, if any, that was passed on.
- The timing of vetting pre/post appointment.
- The meetings held by him and predecessor to make sure the appointment happened.
It turns out a few other people did know, and we're going through a process of finding out how much they could tell Starmer. That area dropped from the list of places Starmer said had never been informed.