Keir Starmer’s hopes of surviving the Mandelson scandal were dealt a hammer blow today as his sacked Foreign Office chief said he was ‘pressured’ into waving through the appointment.
In explosive testimony to MPs, Sir Olly Robbins said Downing Street ‘chased’ the posting as US ambassador and was ‘dismissive’ of the need for any security vetting.
Opening another damaging flank, he also revealed that No10 tried to get Sir Keir’s spin doctor Matthew Doyle a plum posting as a ‘head of mission’ abroad. Lord Doyle later left Government, and has since been stripped of the Labour whip over campaigning for a councillor who had been charged with child sex offences.
The intervention came after Sir Olly was squarely blamed by Sir Keir for failing to tell him officials had advised against giving Mandelson the key job.
During a marathon Commons appearance last night – during which the Labour benches alarmingly emptied behind him – Sir Keir said he had been ‘deliberately’ kept in the dark.
But Sir Olly – who took on his role after Mandelson was publicly announced, but before he was formally confirmed as US envoy – said there was an ‘atmosphere of pressure’.
‘I walked into a situation in which there was already a very very strong expectation… that he needed to be in post and in America as soon as possible,’ he said.
The civil servant said he had received a letter terminating his employment yesterday. He is now thought to be consulting lawyers, with fears he will be in line for a huge payoff.
Earlier, Ed Miliband heaped woe on the premier by revealing he had warned against making Mandelson US ambassador.
The Net Zero Secretary said he told David Lammy he thought the appointment could ‘blow up’ – and the then-Foreign Secretary shared his concerns.
The furore has renewed doubts about whether Sir Keir can cling on in No10, after he was almost ousted in a coup in February. It is barely a fortnight until local elections where Labour is facing a battering at the hands of Reform.
Appearing before MPs, Sir Olly Robbins said No10 was ‘dismissive’ of the need for security vetting
The furore has renewed doubts about whether Sir Keir can cling on in No10, after he was almost ousted in a coup in February
A letter sent to the committee by Sir Olly lays out his case against Downing Street
Yesterday Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander raised eyebrows by saying it was ‘not certain’ the PM would lead Labour into the next election.
Sir Olly said he had been verbally briefed on the vetting process by the Foreign Office’s security chief, and had been told the team were ‘leaning’ towards rejecting Mandelson.
However, he argued officials agreed there were ways of managing the risks and he had been empowered to go ahead.
‘I was briefed that UKSV considered Mandelson a borderline case and that they were leaning towards recommending that clearance be denied, but that the Foreign Office’s security department assessed that the risks identified as of highest concern by UKSV could be managed and/or mitigated,’ Sir Olly said.
‘I was also told that the risks did not relate to Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
‘And I was told that UKSV acknowledged, I don’t know in what way, but acknowledged that the Foreign Office might wish to grant clearance with appropriate risk management.’
By the time Sir Olly became head of the Foreign Office, he said the Cabinet Office had carried out due diligence, and the King had already approved the posting.
He said the US had also given ‘agreement’ and dropping Mandelson at that stage would have ’caused quite an issue’.
‘If the nomination had changed after that point the incoming administration may well have commented on it publicly and it would have caused quite an issue,’ he said.
In a letter to the committee, Sir Olly said: ‘Due diligence (which assesses reputational suitability and checks if a candidate is fit to serve) had been completed by the Cabinet Office,’ he said.
‘Mandelson was being granted access to highly-classified briefing on a case-by-case basis.’
He said this ‘resulted in a dismissive approach’ to whether Developed Vetting (DV) – the most intensive process of clearance – was needed.
‘Nonetheless, despite this atmosphere of pressure, the department completed DV to the normal high standard,’ he added.
Sir Olly pointed out that Sir Keir had not followed the advice of the Cabinet Secretary, who recommended in November 2024 that security clearance be obtained before any political appointee was selected to Washington.
He added: ‘After the announcement, I believe the Cabinet Office raised whether DV was actually necessary.
‘I understand the FCDO insisted that DV was a requirement before Mandelson took up his post in Washington.’
At the hearing, Sir Olly was pressed whether Sir Keir’s former chief of staff had been the one pushing the appointment, but refused to name individuals.
Sir Olly also disclosed that ‘several discussions were initiated by No10 with me about potentially finding a head of mission opportunity for Matthew Doyle, who was then the PM’s head of communications’.
‘I was under strict instructions not to discuss that with the then Foreign Secretary, which was uncomfortable,’ he told the MPs.
Sir Olly highlighted that he had been looking at ‘serious reform’ and job losses at the Foreign Office at the time.
‘I found it very hard to think how I would explain to the office what the credentials of Matthew were to be in an important head of mission role when I was in danger of making very experienced senior diplomats leave the office,’ he said.
‘I did my duty, I looked at the forward look of available jobs, I shared with No10 what some of those might be. It was to be honest hard to find something that might be suitable.
‘But I also felt quite uncomfortable about it. I kept giving advice that this would be very hard for the office and was hard for me personally to defend.’
In February this year Lord Doyle apologised for his past association with Sean Morton, a former Labour councillor in Moray who admitted indecent child image offences in 2017.
Lord Doyle – who has been suspended from the party – campaigned for Morton after he was charged with possessing and distributing indecent images of children in December 2016.
‘At the point of my campaigning support, Morton repeatedly asserted to all those who knew him his innocence, including initially in court,’ the peer said.
‘To have not ceased support ahead of a judicial conclusion was a clear error of judgement for which I apologise unreservedly.’
Mr Miliband insists he has no ambitions to take over from Sir Keir – but many at Westminster regard him as on manoeuvres.
Another potential rival, Angela Rayner, is set to make a pointed intervention urging Labour to be ‘bolder’ at a conference this evening.
Mandelson spent nine months as US ambassador before fresh details of his relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein emerged.
He was a political appointment to the plum diplomatic role, rather than the Washington job going to a career diplomat.
Touring broadcast studios for the Government this morning, Mr Miliband said Sir Keir had acknowledged Mandelson should never have been appointed.
He told Sky News: ‘I steered well clear of Peter Mandelson when I became Labour leader in 2010’.
Asked what he thought when Lord Mandelson’s appointment was announced, he said: ‘That it could blow up, that it could go wrong.’
He added: ‘I had a conversation with David Lammy about it before the appointment and I said I was worried about it… I think he was worried about it too.’
Pressed if Sir Keir Starmer should lose his job, he said: ‘I don’t think so, no. Obviously I don’t.
‘I think prime ministers make errors. Prime ministers are fallible. Prime ministers are human. ‘
Mandelson spent nine months as US ambassador before fresh details of his relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein emerged
Ed Miliband today revealed he warned against making Peter Mandelson US ambassador as Keir Starmer faces more turmoil
During a marathon Commons appearance last night – during which the Labour benches alarmingly emptied behind him – Sir Keir said he had been ‘deliberately’ kept in the dark
Donald Trump waded into the row overnight, jibing that Mandelson was a ‘really bad pick’ for the job of US ambassador.
Escalating his spat with the PM over the Iran war and trade, the US President wrote on Truth Social: ‘Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom acknowledged that he ‘exercised wrong judgement’ when he chose his Ambassador to Washington.
‘I agree, he was a really bad pick.’
Mr Trump added: ‘Plenty of time to recover, however! President DJT.’
One of Sir Keir’s reasons for picking Mandelson was his hope that the smooth-talking Labour veteran would charm Trump.
That seemed to pay off when, during a trade deal announcement in May 2025, the President purred over Mandelson’s ‘beautiful accent’.
Sir Keir endured a torrid grilling in the Commons yesterday, with Speaker Lindsay Hoyle allowing the session to run for nearly two and a half hours following his own clash with the PM the previous week.
The premier was drowned out by mocking laughter as he acknowledged that his own version of events ‘beggars belief’.
He struggled to explain why he appointed Mandelson before he had been vetted, despite being warned about his friendship with Epstein and business links to China and Russia.
Donald Trump waded into the row overnight, jibing that Mandelson was a ‘really bad pick’ for the job of US ambassador
Sir Keir denied misleading MPs over his decision to appoint the disgraced Labour peer as ambassador to the United States.
He admitted it had been a mistake to bring back Mandelson, describing it as ‘wrong’ – and insisted he would ‘take responsibility’ for that.
But he claimed he would never have given the Labour grandee the job if he had known that he failed security vetting.
Instead he angrily blamed the Foreign Office and Sir Olly.
