Kemi Badenoch wants Sir Keir Starmer to face “serious consequences” if he is found to have misled Parliament over Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment.
The Conservative Party leader was asked on GB News if the Prime Minister should resign were that to be the case.
While she would not go as far as call for his dismissal, she said Sir Keir must face the music.
“This is about the Prime Minister’s judgement, transparency and honesty”, she said.
Kemi Badenoch said Keir Starmer should follow standards he has set
|GB NEWS / PA
“When I asked him at Prime Minister’s Questions what he knew, he said he had full confidence in Peter Mandelson then sacked him the next day”, she said.
“He said that he did not know all the stuff that came out, then it turned out he did know. He had all these emails, details on Tuesday and on Wednesday, he was saying he had full confidence in the ambassador.
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“What is worse than that is it sounds like he overruled security concerns about Peter Mandelson due to his previous reputation and links with China. He needs to come clean. We cannot have a Prime Minister who is telling us stuff in Parliament that turns out not to be true.
“There are very serious questions to answer about UK national security, how this decision was made and what Keir Starmer’s Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney knew and how he is running this country.”
Kemi Badenoch joined Andrew Pierce and Miriam Cates on GB News
|GB NEWS
Asked by Andrew Pierce whether Sir Keir should resign if he is found to have misled Parliament, she said: “I think there should be serious consequences.
“If you have lied to Parliament, on his own benchmark, I remember Keir Starmer going after Boris Johnson on that standard, I am saying he should be facing his own standard.
“Has he been honest with the public? The public thinks this is a man who tells lies. He told lies to get elected. He said he would not increase taxes, he did increase taxes.
“They went after the Winter Fuel Payment after saying it would be safe. This is a party who thought they could say whatever they wanted to get into Government and now they are in Government, they can’t run the country.”
The Prime Minister addressed the Lord Mandelson controversy publicly for the first time on Monday during a Sky News interview, where he faced intense questioning about his decision to dismiss the ambassador.
Sir Keir maintained that Lord Mandelson had undergone appropriate vetting procedures before his appointment.