Keir Starmer could face a British Parliamentary sleaze inquiry into claims he lied to MPs over the Peter Mandelson scandal.
The Commons will vote on Tuesday on whether to refer the British Prime Minister to the Privileges Committee to consider if he misled the House over the way Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US was handled.
Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle allowed a vote on the issue following requests from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and other senior MPs.
British Cabinet minister Emma Reynolds accused the Tories of playing “silly political games” over the issue.
But the Speaker’s decision now gives the Labour leadership a headache in deciding whether to order Starmer’s MPs to publicly oppose a referral to the committee.
The committee was responsible for Boris Johnson’s exit from frontline politics after it investigated him for misleading the House over the “partygate” breaches of Covid-19 laws in Downing Street.
He quit as an MP in 2023 before the committee published a report recommending his suspension.
Tory leader Badenoch called for Labour MPs to back the referral to the Privileges Committee.
She said: “The Prime Minister misled the House of Commons repeatedly.
Keir Starmer misled Parliament, sacked officials for his own failures, and risked national security with Mandelson’s appointment.
MPs will now vote on referring him to the Privileges Committee.
The Prime Minister should be held to the same standards he held others. pic.twitter.com/KAjVQVjwHV
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) April 27, 2026
“He appointed a national security risk and friend of a convicted paedophile to be our ambassador in Washington, our most sensitive diplomatic post.
“He pretended that full due process was followed for this appointment. It was not.
“He has blamed the appointment on officials when the blame can only be placed at his own door.”
The British Prime Minister has been accused of misleading MPs by saying that “full due process” was followed in appointing Mandelson, who was given developed vetting status despite failing security checks.
The British Foreign Office, under then top civil servant Olly Robbins, cleared him despite red flags raised by experts at the UK Security Vetting agency responsible for the checks.
Starmer has also faced questions for telling MPs that “no pressure existed whatsoever in relation to this case”.
Robbins told MPs “my office and the Foreign Secretary’s office were under constant pressure” about the appointment in January 2025, after it had been announced but before the security checks were completed.
Starmer told The Sunday Times UK he was not talking about the “everyday pressure of government” but the suggestion of specific pressure on Robbins’s grant, Mandelson’s developed vetting status.
“(Robbins) was really clear in his mind that wasn’t pressure that was put on him. And he also goes on to say that none of this impacted his decision,” Starmer said.