Vicki Barker

For NPR News, I'm Vicki Barker in London.

Starmer is expected to repeat his assertion that he only just learned that Peter Mandelson, who was fired as Britain's ambassador to the U.S.

last year over revelations in the Epstein files,

had actually failed a security check when appointed.

But as The Guardian's political editor Pippa Crearer told the BBC, the career civil servant Starmer just fired for that alleged oversight will be testifying Tuesday.

That might be a moment when that all comes to a head.

He puts his side of the story and that could be damaging to the Prime Minister who has already been so damaged.

by this extraordinary scandal.

If Starmer is found to have deliberately misled Parliament, convention requires that he step down.

For NPR News, I'm Vicki Barker in London.

Starmer is expected to repeat his assertion that he only just learned that Peter Mandelson, who was fired as Britain's ambassador to the U.S.

last year over revelations in the Epstein files...

had actually failed a security check when appointed.

But as The Guardian's political editor Pippa Crearer told the BBC, the career civil servant Starmer just fired for that alleged oversight will be testifying Tuesday.

That might be a moment when that all comes to a head.

He puts his side of the story and that could be damaging to the Prime Minister who has already been so damaged.

by this extraordinary scandal.

If Starmer is found to have deliberately misled Parliament, convention requires that he step down.

For NPR News, I'm Vicki Barker in London.

First, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds fired a salvo at a tradition long cherished by British gardeners.