Starmer’s former chief of staff says he asked people to act quickly but not to skip steps in vetting process

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Morgan McSweeney has admitted that Foreign Office officials came under intense pressure to expedite Peter Mandelson’s posting as UK ambassador to Washington, but denied they were forced to “skip steps” in security vetting to do so.

Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff, who resigned earlier this year over the scandal, acknowledged that he had asked the then top official at the department, Philip Barton, to conduct the process “at pace” but not to do anything “improper”.