Ministers urged to share Mandelson vetting files with intelligence committee

Ministers are under growing pressure to share the documents from Peter Mandelson’s vetting process with the parliamentary committee tasked with deciding if they should be made public.In February, MPs passed a binding parliamentary motion, known as a humble address, requiring the government to publish “all papers” relating to Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US.The motion made an exemption for documents “prejudicial to UK national security or international relations”, which would be given to the Intelligence and Security Committee, a trusted nine-person group of MPs and peers who oversee the activities of the intelligence agencies.Officials within the Cabinet Office have discussed for weeks how to comply with the terms of the humble address because it would be “unprecedented” to disclose details of Mandelson’s developed vetting process.As the Guardian revealed last week, United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) decided that Mandelson should be denied clearance but that advice was overruled by the Foreign Office so he could take up his post

UK seeks EU deals on steel and EVs in push for closer economic ties

Downing Street hopes to secure deals on steel and electric cars with the EU as it seeks to upgrade the post-Brexit economic relationship.Amid economic uncertainty caused by the conflict in the Middle East and strains in relations with the US, Keir Starmer is seeking closer economic ties with the EU.The UK wants agreements on steel and electric vehicles to avoid British industry being disadvantaged by scheduled changes to trade rules.The EU this week agreed trade restrictions on steel imports in response to a glut of artificially cheap Chinese imports that have depressed global prices. The UK, which is one of the EU’s biggest markets, is not the target, but will be hurt by the higher tariffs, which come into force on 1 July

Starmer would have blocked Mandelson appointment if he had known about failed vetting, ministers say – as it happened

Keir Starmer would have withdrawn Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US if he had known he had not passed security vetting, Liz Kendall said, even if it was close to Donald Trump’s inauguration.Kendall told Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One that Starmer would have rescinded the job offer if he had been told – regardless of the timing ahead of Trump taking up the presidency.She said: “If the prime minister had known that UK security vetting had not cleared him, the appointment would have been withdrawn.“It would’t have mattered how close that was to the president’s inauguration or any of that, I believe that because there is no way that the prime minister would have continued with it, had he known the facts that he now knows.”That’s all for today, as the saga from Peter Mandelson’s appointment continues and piles more pressure on Keir Starmer

How Reform is exposing the reality of Scotland’s views on immigration and identity

It’s Monday evening in Aberdeen, and George Preston is wearing his union flag suit to the Reform UK rally. He joined the party in 2024 as it gained ground in the north-east of Scotland with its first councillor defections from the Scottish Conservatives.Now Preston is out leafleting for the party that polls suggest is vying with Scottish Labour to become the official opposition to the Scottish National party in the Holyrood elections on 7 May.“Very, very few have said: ‘Have this back,’” he says. “Far more are supportive

MoD has lost track of veterans on recall list, says defence adviser

The Ministry of Defence has lost track of military veterans they intend to recall at a time of national danger, according to a key government adviser.About 95,000 former soldiers and officers are in the strategic reserve but it is claimed that officials have failed to maintain a full record of their contact details.George Robertson, a former defence secretary and head of Nato who co-authored last year’s strategic defence review (SDR), made the claim at an event in Salisbury, Wiltshire.“What the review talks about is having the strategic reserve, that is, all of the people in this room who’ve been in the forces who have got a continuing obligation,” the Labour peer said. “But the Ministry of Defence at the present moment doesn’t even know where most of them are

‘Things could go backwards’: Kezia Dugdale on safety, LGBTQ+ rights and the future of Stonewall

Kezia Dugdale, the former leader of Scottish Labour, says she is now “quite scared” as a lesbian in Britain and has started to feel nervous holding her wife’s hand in public.Speaking to the Guardian in Edinburgh on the announcement of her appointment as the chair of Stonewall, the LGBTQ+ charity, she said it was “completely possible” gay rights in the UK could be eroded with the rise of rightwing populism.Equal marriage could not be taken for granted, she cautioned. “I don’t think it is an implausible argument now in the way that it maybe was five years ago. My rationale for that is: look at Italy, for example, where you see a rollback of rights for LGBT people