Britain's Prime Minister is accusing officials of withholding information from him before he appointed Peter Mandelson US ambassador. 

Sir Keir Starmer sacked Mandelson in September last year over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. 

Starmer says officials deliberately didn't tell him Mandelson has failed security vetting, and he wouldn't have cleared Mandelson to the role if he'd known. 

UK Correspondent Rod Liddle told Mike Hosking neither the arguments of the Government nor those of then-Foreign Office boss Sir Olly Robbins make sense.  

He says the situation is catastrophic. 

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