Lord Mandelson: Response to Humble Address Motion

Lord Grade of Yarmouth Excerpts

Tuesday 17th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harris of Haringey (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Non-Afl)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

My noble friend is absolutely right. There have been several political appointments, as I have said, including of Members of your Lordships’ House, to ambassadorial and diplomatic roles. Also, there have been direct ministerial appointments made outside this. This is not an unusual process. However, I appreciate it is rare in the diplomatic field. What we have to do is make sure that, as and when political appointees are considered to be appropriate, the nature of our politics should not suggest that we are therefore excluded from other roles, but we should make sure that due process is followed. Given recent events, we have changed due process both on direct ministerial appointments and on any future political appointments in the diplomatic space.

The noble Lord also asked about negotiations around severance payments. I am a former trade union officer and spent a great deal of time negotiating other people’s packages. Negotiations in this space are not unusual, but the noble Lord’s most important point was about imperfections in the system. I am viewing this as an opportunity to reflect on what has gone wrong and what we now need to fix. But let us be clear that there have been significant weaknesses in processes. The onus now is on this Government to strengthen the processes.

[Lord Grade of Yarmouth (Non-Afl)]

My diplomatic friends tell me that, if they are up for a sensitive posting abroad, the due diligence that the FCO carries out is a brutal, intrusive and pretty degrading exercise, but a very effective one. Why is the system of due diligence for a political appointment different?

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

My Lords, it is not. It is exactly the same in terms of the security and vetting processes. I would like to reassure noble Lords that the vetting process that was undertaken on Peter Mandelson was expedited but followed every step.