𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

There are many things sickening about the Peter Mandelson affair. The decision to appoint the cheerleader of the world’s most prolific paedophile to the most prestigious job in the Civil Service could ultimately be one which leads to the downfall of Keir Starmer. The audacity of Mandelson to deem himself worthy of such a role given his string of scandals is one thing.

Worse still the belief that he, not the hundreds of victims who suffered abuse at the hands of his mate, is the one that has been hard done by, is sickening. Sources close to Mandelson claim that the former Lord is claiming that he was never asked about his links to Epstein in the vetting process, something I find hard, almost impossible to believe having been through the same process.

I went through developed vetting (DV) in 2021 whilst serving in the British Army ahead of posting that would see me gain access to top secret information.

DV is common for soldiers, members of the intelligence community, civil servants and MPs and is designed to assess candidates for vulnerabilities.

The whole point is to find information that could be used by hostile states or actors to blackmail or influence somebody with access to classified information.

Vetting officers will look into every aspect of your life before you sit for your interview. They will speak to school friends, assess bank statements and financial history of you and your partners, interrogate your travel history for at least a decade prior and much more.

If your name has ever appeared online, it will be flagged and analysed.

When you arrive for your DV assessment, which takes a minimum of six hours, you will be quizzed on every intimate aspect of your life.

They will ask about sexual partners, sexual predilections, porn habits, missed payments, relationships with friends with dual nationality, use of gambling websites and so much more. By the end of the interview, your assessors will know you better than your closest friends and they will catch you out when lying.

They asked me why my wife spends so much on clothes as if she has wild spending habits that could be exploited by Beijing and told me about credit cards I had open in my name but had forgotten to close.

All of this, was for an army Captain, of which there are dozens, with a bland past and an unassuming group of associates.

Mandelson’s past relationship with Epstein was known when he went through vetting. It was mentioned in a report produced on the six person shortlist according to the New Statesman and was the subject of newspaper articles and Westminster gossip.

Furthermore, he wasn’t going to be some mid-ranking army officer in a sensitive posting, he was going to be the government’s conduit to the White House. The impact of any vulnerabilities in his closet had the potential to be a thousand times more catastrophic than anything in mine.

I spent 10 minutes explaining my friendship with a girl at college who was born in Kazakhstan. So the idea that the man who was set to become the US ambassador was not quizzed on his relationship with a prolific sex offender is for the birds.

Either something has gone drastically wrong, or Mandelson is lying. I know from my experience, which of the two I believe.