Key Mandelson Vetting Figure to Answer in Writing, Not Testify
Key Mandelson Vetting Figure to Answer in Writing, Not Testify
Ian Collard will provide written answers to MPs over Mandelson’s vetting row as the Foreign Affairs Committee seeks full transparency.
A key figure in the row over Peter Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to Washington will not appear before a parliamentary committee to give evidence. Emily Thornberry had requested that Ian Collard speak to the foreign affairs committee on Tuesday, but confirmed on Saturday that he would submit written answers instead. The committee has already heard from Olly Robbins, the Foreign Office’s top civil servant who was forced out of his post last week after the decision to fail Mandelson during his security vetting was overruled by his department, and the Cabinet Office permanent secretary, Cat Little. Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, is due to appear on Tuesday.
Collard, who has given evidence to the select committee previously, is a former ambassador to Lebanon and Panama and was appointed the Foreign Office’s chief property and security officer in March 2023. Robbins said Collard briefed him on the vetting findings that deemed the peer a borderline case and leaned towards recommending that clearance be denied. Thornberry has asked Collard to detail his recollection of this meeting and whether it lines up with Robbins’s evidence in a letter to the Foreign Office with questions to be answered by 5pm on Monday. She also asked him to set out whether he felt under pressure to deliver Mandelson’s clearance, after Robbins said there was an “atmosphere of pressure” and “constant chasing” from Downing Street. Whether he had seen the cover form for Mandelson’s vetting by UK Security Vetting, the agency responsible for checks on candidates for sensitive posts, in which it had ticked two red boxes—meaning they had “high concern” and recommended “clearance denied or withdrawn.”
If he was asked by anyone in the Foreign Office, Downing Street or the Cabinet Office for advice about whether Mandelson required vetting for the post given that he was a member of the House of Lords. Thornberry’s request underscores ongoing concerns about transparency and the decision-making process behind high-profile diplomatic appointments.
