In the end, the Peter Mandelson affair demonstrated that the most powerful form of vetting is not conducted by the Cabinet Office, but by the public, the press, and victims’ advocates. It was this ultimate, unofficial vetting process that exposed the truth and forced accountability.
The official vetting process, conducted behind closed doors, cleared the way for his appointment based on the information it had. It was a formal, bureaucratic check that, in this case, proved inadequate.
The real vetting began the moment his appointment was made public. It was conducted by investigative journalists at Bloomberg who dug for new information. It was conducted by the family of Virginia Giuffre, who held his appointment up to a moral standard. And it was conducted by the public, whose outrage grew as the facts emerged.
This public scrutiny proved to be far more thorough and unforgiving than the official process. It found the evidence that was missed and applied an ethical test that the government had failed to. The scandal is a powerful affirmation that in a democracy, the final and most important vetting of public officials is done in the court of public opinion.