Security Vetting

Emily Darlington Excerpts

Monday 20th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I think any Minister, of any Government, who had not been provided with this relevant information would rightly be frustrated and angry.

[Emily Darlington (Milton Keynes Central) (Lab)]

I want to take a moment to focus on the young women who were exploited, abused and raped by Jeffrey Epstein and his friends. For years they were trafficked for rape, with no one to turn to, and for years people did not believe them. The idea that Mandelson would call Epstein’s conviction “wrongful” is disgusting, and I cannot imagine how it felt for the survivors to hear that. The Prime Minister was right to sack him. Will he take this opportunity to say again to those young women that this House believes them and the Government stand by them, and is he confident that no person with financial or personal links to sex traffickers will receive developed vetting status in future?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is right to focus on the victims in this. I started this statement by making it clear that this was a judgment error on my part, and the apology that I have made is to the victims, because I know the impact that this will have had on them, who have already suffered so very much.