𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Nigel Farage ripped into Sir Keir Starmer over the Lord Peter Mandelson scandal in an LBC interview this morning. The Reform UK leader said it was “totally unbelievable” that the PM was not told that the Foreign Office had taken the rare step of overruling his security vetting for the US ambassador role after he was denied clearance.

The Government has said Sir Keir was not aware until earlier this week, and top civil servant Sir Olly Robbins has been sacked. But Mr Farage told LBC: “None of this adds up, the idea they weren’t told about the vetting. Remember, in the House of Commons, Starmer actually said that the vetting had told him about the ongoing relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, then outside of the House, in Hastings, he gave a speech in which he said that Mandelson had cleared security vetting.

“They are all over the place on this, it is totally unbelievable and Robbins, he’s the sacrificial lamb in an attempt to try and save the Prime Minister, and it just isn’t good enough.”

Mr Farage added: “I am in absolutely no doubt in my mind that this Prime Minister misled the House of Commons and lied to the country outside of the House of Commons.”

He said Sir Olly is “one of the most professional civil servants in this country” and “there is no way” he would have decided to overrule security vetting procedures alone.

The Reform leader said: “There is no way a man like that would unilaterally make a decision of this kind, and, equally, the Prime Minister cannot stand up and say that Mandelson passed security vetting and now claim later he wasn’t told.

“That’s not incompetence, even Keir Starmer is not that incompetent, it is outright, blatant dishonesty.”

The Clacton MP predicted that Sir Keir will be forced out after next month’s local elections.

He said: “What I think will happen is he’ll limp in til May 7 and if I’m right and Reform literally crush the Labour vote in the north of England, in South Wales, in parts of Scotland, then that will be the end of Starmer.

“In fact our campaign slogan is vote Reform, get Starmer out and I think we’re the ones that can finish off the job.”

Mr Farage also accused Sir Keir of “absolute duplicity at every level” when asked if he thought it was “incompetence or duplicity” by the PM.

He said: “Absolute duplicity at every level. There’s absolutely no way whatever you think of Olly Robbins and his role in the Brexit fiasco, he is one of the most professional civil servants in this country.”

On whether Sir Keir will still be in post for Labour’s annual conference in September, Mr Farage added: “Oh he won’t last that long, goodness gracious me. He’ll be gone by the middle of summer.”