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Commons watchdog chief shares verdict on calls for Keir Starmer to be ousted from Downing Street
Apr 21, 2026
The chair of the Public Accounts Committee has shared his verdict on calls for Sir Keir Starmer to be ousted from Downing Street amid the Peter Mandelson scandal. Speaking to GB News, Sir Geoffrey Clifton Brown said the Prime Minister’s current situation was akin to that faced by Boris Johnson in the dying days of his premiership.
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But somebody who knows all about the end of days of a Prime Minister
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is Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, and he joins me now. Sir Geoffrey, you, of course, you are on the board of the 22 committee
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Treasurer. Treasurer, since 2017. You've overseen all the chaos of leadership under the last Tory governments
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Do you see any comparisons and parallels with this? Yes, very much so
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This is sort of beginning to build up. It's the sort of lull before the storm. It's obvious that something was going to happen
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and then, of course, Boris eventually had to fall on his sword and go. I don't think Keir will go immediately
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but I think if they get really as bad a result in the local government elections
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as everybody is predicting, they will use this as the excuse, his actions over this Mandelson affair
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as the reason why he's got to go. I was watching all the MPs yesterday for my position above your benches in the Commons
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They looked very, very depressed, arms folded, grim-faced, half-hearted cheers to the Prime Minister
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Many left while he was still trying to defend himself under the Tory Lib Dem reform attacks
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It didn't feel great for the PM yesterday. No, I agree with that entirely. And I think it's this
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The issue is this, really. On the 12th of September last year
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the well-known journalist David Maddox approached Number 10 to ask about this story
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that Mandelson had failed his positive vetting. So Number 10 at that point
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their press office knew that this had happened. And yet, why didn't they transcribe that to Starmer
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Why didn't Starmer know? Or did he know, in which case he's misled Parliament
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Either it's incompetence or he's misled Parliament, one or the other. Well, let's get to Olly Robbins
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He, of course, was the permanent secretary in the Foreign Office. He said there was relentless pressure, repeated, insistent pressure
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from the private office in 10 Downing Street onto his team to agree to the appointment of Peter Mandelson
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And he said that pressure must have come from somewhere Where do you think it came from Well there only one man it could have come from and that the Prime Minister Now I know Ollo Robbins quite well He appeared before my Public Accounts Committee To my mind he
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a man of integrity. He will do what is the right thing to do. And I think that what happened
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is if you put somebody through positive vetting, you've got to expect that if they don't pass
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and lots of people don't pass, then they shouldn't be appointed. And I think this whole disconnect
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between the positive vetting and the Prime Minister knowing about it. In fact, the Prime Minister, of course, knew a lot already
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before the positive vetting started. They knew about all his links to China and Russia
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They knew about the fact that he'd been passing confidential information to Epstein, irrespective of occupying the house
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while Epstein was in jail for child sex trafficking. So there was more than enough for the Prime Minister
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to question the judgment of this appointment, and yet he still went ahead anyway
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But they thought it was a risk worth taking, didn't they? and now it looks like it's detonating under the actual premiership of the PM himself
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MPs, there's a debate going on right now, forced by your party, the Tories
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That could cause real problems for Keir Starmer. There's more to come. There'll be a paper trail of phone calls, emails, WhatsApp
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messages from Number 10 pressuring the Foreign Office to act. That information will come out, I guess
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Well, so, Kemi Badnock very cleverly laid down this loyal address which calls for production of these papers
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and it was that process that got Cat Little and Antonio Romeo
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actually calling for those papers. Eventually they got them and they discovered that he'd failed the positive vetting
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and they then went to the Prime Minister, but far too late. If I could ask you the last question, Sir Geoffrey Kifton-Brown
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you've run leadership elections, you've seen Tory PMs come and go. How long has Keir Starmer got
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I'd be very surprised if he's still there by the end of the year. So Jeffrey McRifton Brown there, a veteran, I think, of seeing PMs come and go
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He says this PM is out by the year end
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