Mandelson links to former head of Israel's military intelligence directorate revealed
The UK government's vetting agency raised Peter Mandelson's associations with senior figures in Israel, China and Russia in denying the then-peer and former cabinet minister security clearance to be the ambassador to the US, it has emerged.
Mandelson lost his job as British ambassador to the US last September and was stripped of his peerage earlier this year after details emerged of his close friendship with the late American paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Since then Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government has faced enormous scrutiny and criticism over the decision to appoint Mandelson as ambassador to the US in 2024.
Earlier this year it was revealed that United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) had concluded Mandelson should be denied security clearance, but the Foreign Office permanent secretary granted it anyway.
The Guardian newspaper reported on Wednesday that UKSV found Mandelson had links to a former Israeli military intelligence general, Tamir Hayman.
Hayman was the head of Israel's military intelligence directorate from 2018 to 2021 and is now director of a Tel Aviv-based think tank called the Institute for National Security Studies (INNS).
Hayman has previously said that while he was head of the directorate, it encouraged the United States to assassinate Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020.
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UKSV reportedly found that Mandelson and Hayman spoke bimonthly.
The INNS told the Guardian that Hayman had "no personal connection or familiarity whatsoever" with Mandelson, but that before he became ambassador Mandelson took part in an "external advisory framework" at the think tank.
Labour government facing mounting scrutiny
UKSV also found that Mandelson had taken a £1m loan from an unnamed businessman to acquire shares in an Israeli company called Moon Active.
The company is behind the popular mobile phone game Coin Master.
Middle East Eye reported in February that Epstein asked former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to task Mandelson with selling Israel's largest fuel company, Paz Oil Company, in 2013.
In September 2013, Mandelson also asked Epstein to consult Barak on what he thought of an Israeli political consultant called Asaf Eisin.
Mandelson also reportedly had links to Chinese and Russian figures, which UKSV flagged as causes for concern.
One of these were China’s minister of finance, Lan Fo’an, who reportedly spoke to Mandelson several times a year and has met Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves on separate occasions in the past two years.
This has raised questions over whether Mandelson as ambassador to the US was involved in those meetings.
UKSV further flagged Mandelson's well-documented friendship with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska.
It emerged earlier this year that in 2010 Mandelson asked Deripaska to help secure a visa for Epstein to visit Moscow.
This comes as the government is under increasing pressure to comply with a recent parliamentary motion ordering the release of papers relating to Mandelson's appointment.
Parliament's intelligence and security committee accused the government of withholding some of the relevant documents earlier this month.
A new tranche of Mandelson files is set to be released next month.
A government spokesperson said on Thursday the government is "committed to complying" with the parliamentary motion "in full".
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