Senior British official resigns over Mandelson appointment but Starmer insists he won't go

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Friday resisted demands he resign over revelations that his scandal-tainted pick for U.K. ambassador to Washington was appointed despite failing security checks.

Starmer says he was not informed that the Foreign Office had overruled the recommendation of security officials in early 2025 not to give Peter Mandelson the job. Many considered Mandelson a risky appointment because of his past friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The top Foreign Office civil servant, Olly Robbins, took the fall for the decision and resigned late Thursday.

Starmer said he was “absolutely furious” that he had been kept in the dark, calling it staggering” and “unforgivable." He said he would “set out all the relevant facts in true transparency” to Parliament on Monday.

That’s unlikely to end the danger to the prime minister over his fateful decision to appoint Mandelson, a trade expert and elder statesman of the governing Labour Party, as envoy to the Trump administration. It was a calculated risk that backfired spectacularly, and could bring down the prime minister.

Opposition politicians expressed disbelief that Starmer could have been unaware Mandelson had failed security vetting. Starmer’s office said he only found out this week.

Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, said Friday that “the recommendation was to not appoint Peter Mandelson to the role,” and that the Foreign Office ignored it. He said that was “astonishing,” but within the rules.

He said no government minister had been told of the security assessment.

Jones said the checks, carried out by a department known as U.K. Security Vetting, “go through financial, personal, sexual, religious and other types of background information, and that is why it is kept extremely private on a portal that only a few people have access to.”

Opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said claims the prime minister didn’t know were “completely preposterous.”

“This story does not stack up. The prime minister is taking us for fools,” she told the BBC. “All roads lead to a resignation.”

Ed Davey, the leader of the centrist Liberal Democrats, said Starmer “must go” if he misled Parliament and lied to the British public.

Starmer has repeatedly insisted that “due process” was followed in the appointment, which was announced in December 2024. Mandelson took up the Washington post in February 2025, after undergoing security vetting.

Mandelson’s expertise as a former European Union trade chief was considered a major asset in trying to persuade the Trump administration not to slap heavy tariffs on British goods, and seemed to pay off when the countries struck a trade deal in May 2025.

But documents released by the government in March, after being forced to by Parliament, showed Starmer ignored red flags raised by his staff about the appointment. He was warned that Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, exposed the government to “reputational risk.”

Starmer fired Mandelson in September 2025 after evidence emerged that he had lied about the extent of his links to Epstein.

The prime minister has apologized to the British public and to Epstein’s victims for believing what he has termed “Mandelson’s lies.”

Starmer’s premiership faced its biggest crisis in February after the release of millions of pages of Epstein-related documents by the U.S. Department of Justice showed the closeness of Mandelson’s relationship with the financier, even after Epstein’s conviction in 2008 for sexual offenses involving a minor.

Emails between the men suggested Mandelson had passed on sensitive — and potentially market-moving — government information to Epstein in 2009, when he was a member of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government.

British police subsequently launched a criminal probe and searched Mandelson’s houses in London and western England. Mandelson was arrested on Feb. 23 on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

He has been released without bail conditions as the police investigation continues. Mandelson has previously denied wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged. He does not face allegations of sexual misconduct.

King Charles III’s brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, is also under police investigation over his friendship with Epstein. He, too, has been arrested but not charged.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks as Starmer hosts social media industry leaders to discuss child safety online Thursday, April 16, 2026, in London. (Leon Neal/Pool Photo via AP)

FILE - This March 28, 2017, photo provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry shows Jeffrey Epstein. (New York State Sex Offender Registry via AP, File)

FILE - Peter Mandelson, the former U.K. ambassador to the United States, leaves his house in London, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The man accused of killing Charlie Kirk wants a judge to ban cameras from the courtroom and says live broadcasts of the prosecution are violating his right to a fair trial.

Tyler Robinson is due in court Friday as his attorneys press their claims that biased coverage is tainting potential jurors in his aggravated murder case.

Among numerous examples cited was a New York Post story they say suggested Robinson confessed to Kirk's killing during a courtroom conversation on Dec. 11, in his first appearance after being charged. The conversation with his attorneys was inaudible, but the story cited a “lip reading analysis” to support its claim that Robinson said, “I think about the shooting daily.”

“The predominant purpose being served by the live stream coverage has not been the educational reporting of the court proceedings, but rather advertising profit, sensationalism, political agendas, and, most prominently, the vilification of Mr. Robinson,” his attorneys wrote in their request to bar cameras.

Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty for Robinson should he be convicted in the Sept. 10 shooting of the conservative activist, who was addressing a crowd of thousands on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem.

Robinson, who turned 23 on Thursday, has not yet entered a plea.

Media sensationalism around the case has cut both ways. In a March 30 headline, the U.K.-based Daily Mail reported the bullet that killed Kirk “did NOT match” a rifle allegedly used by Robinson. The story was based on an inconclusive, preliminary finding by ballistics experts and led to speculation about Robinson's possible exoneration. The FBI is running additional tests, according to court documents.

Media organizations, prosecutors and Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, want the court to allow cameras. They argue the best way to guard against the misinformation and conspiracy theories that concern Robinson's defense team is to make the process transparent.

Yet livestreaming by media outlets already has tested the patience of Judge Tony Graf.

During the December hearing, Graf briefly stopped the livestream and ordered the camera relocated after it showed the defendant’s shackles in violation of a courtroom decorum order.

Then, a January hearing was interrupted when Robinson's attorneys said close-up shots of Robinson being livestreamed by a local television station could again lead to claims based on lip reading. That, too, was a violation of Graf's decorum order. The judge ordered the camera operator not to film Robinson for the remainder of the hearing.

Mike Judd, a lawyer for a coalition of media organizations including The Associated Press that have been fighting to preserve access, said Graf so far has focused on whether his rules inside the courtroom are being followed, not what the media is saying outside of court.

“The court can do all of that in order to try to control what gets fed into that media ecosystem,” Judd said. “You reduce the likelihood of somebody publishing things that you think may be of potentially biasing concern later on.”

Policies on cameras and livestreaming vary among states, and many including Utah give judges discretion over whether to allow cameras. Cameras are generally prohibited in federal courts.

“There's Supreme Court precedent that says courts generally need to be open to the public, but that's not an absolute right,” said University of Utah law professor Teneille Brown. “Even if they allow public access, that does not equal a right to broadcast or record.”

Robinson’s attorneys are seeking to delay his May preliminary hearing, when prosecutors must show that they have enough evidence to proceed to a trial.

Prosecutors have said DNA consistent with Robinson’s was found on the trigger of the rifle, the fired cartridge casing, two unfired cartridges and a towel used to wrap the rifle. Defense attorneys note that forensic reports indicate multiple people’s DNA was found on some items, which they say requires a more complex analysis.

Robinson reportedly texted his romantic partner that he targeted Kirk because he “had enough of his hatred,” prosecutors have said.

Brown reported from Billings, Montana.

FILE - Tyler Robinson, who is accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, appears during a hearing in Fourth District Court in Provo, Utah, on Dec. 11, 2025. (Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, Pool, File)

FILE - A well-wisher places flowers at a makeshift memorial set up for Charlie Kirk at Turning Point USA headquarters, Sept. 11, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

FILE - Fourth District Court Judge Tony Graf speaks during a hearing for Tyler Robinson, who is accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, in 4th District Court, March 13, 2026, in Provo, Utah. (Laura Seitz/The Deseret News via AP, Pool, File)