This is The Guardian.

The notion that senior officials could make a decision of this magnitude

and not inform a minister, let alone the Prime Minister,

I think we'll strike many people as extraordinary.

That I wasn't told that Peter Mandelson had failed security vetting when he's appointed is staggering.

All of this just raises the question about, you know, who is in charge? Is it the people we elect,

to government, to Parliament, or is it, you know, officialdom, state,

a national security establishment? I mean, for me, that's the heart of this question.

The Guardian has exclusively revealed that Peter Mandelson, the former US ambassador, failed security

clearance, but that was overruled by the foreign office and allegedly withheld from the Prime Minister.

From The Guardians today in focus, this is the latest with me, Lucy Hoff.

Well, Paul Lewis, our investigations editor is here, part of the team, the amazing cracks squad

behind this astonishing scoop that is now on the front page of every single British newspaper.

A story about Peter Mandelson, the former US ambassador, it turns out failed security clearance,

but that failure was overruled by the foreign office.

Talk to me, Paul, about the reporting that you've uncovered.

Okay, well, I mean, I guess the key fact, the one that led late last night to the resignation of the permanent secretary in the foreign office, the key fact that has proven such a huge controversy for the prime minister right now is that after the point at which Peter Mandelson was announced as Starrma's pick for Washington,

he had to undergo a security vetting process. This is at the end of December 24, wasn't it? And then

he was appointed in. Exactly. So the Prime Minister announces he's going to be ambassador to the US

in December 24. By the following month, this security vetting process is underway. Normally, it's just a formality. I mean, this is, I think this may have been lost in some of the reporting. This is a level of vetting that some low ranking civil servants have to go through. Now, what we reported was that vetting process, which is done by an agency called UK security vetting, the division

of the Cabinet Office, vetted Mandelson, and it had three options. So it could either give him

clearance. That was the first. The second was it could give him clearance with mitigation,

...