Business Secretary Peter Kyle has admitted No10 felt Peter Mandelson was “worth the risk” despite his close relationship with convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein when he was appointed US ambassador.
The Labour minister insisted the Labour grandee’s “singular talents” meant they felt it was “worth the risk” at the time.
This was despite two vetting processes showing information that was already public, Mr Kyle has said.
He told Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News it was not correct that Lord Mandelson was appointed ambassador to the US before security checks were completed.
“The Cabinet Office did an independent inquiry into the appointment, as they do in every public appointment of this nature, and the information, that was presented to the Prime Minister.
“The second process was obviously a political process where there are political conversations done in No 10 about all the other aspects of an appointment of this nature.
“Now both of these things turned up information that was already public and a decision was made that based on Peter’s singular talents in this area, that the risk of appointing knowing what was already public was worth the risk.
“Now of course we have seen the emails which were not published at the time, were not public and not even known about, and that has changed the situation.”
The Labour grandee was sacked on Thursday after emails were published showing Lord Mandelson sent supportive messages even as Epstein faced jail for sex offences.
The Prime Minister is facing questions over what he knew about the peer’s friendship with the paedophile financier and the vetting process for his diplomatic posting.
Ahead of Lord Mandelson’s appointment, the Prime Minister was given a file that included information about his links to Epstein by the Cabinet Office Propriety and Ethics Team and prepared three questions based on it, the PA news agency understands.
They included why he continued contact with Epstein after he was convicted and why he was reported to have stayed in one of the paedophile financier’s homes while he was in prison.
The BBC reported it understands Lord Mandelson believes he was truthful about his association with Epstein and that he told No 10 he had not stayed at his apartment while he was in prison in 2009.
But No 10 sources said Lord Mandelson was “economical with the truth” in his answers to those questions.
Another vetting process carried out by the Foreign Office followed.