Sir Keir Starmer’s officials secretly lobbied to get one of his spin doctors made an ambassador, the mandarin he sacked over the Peter Mandelson scandal has revealed.
The Prime Minister’s private office was said to have to told Sir Olly Robbins he must not even tell then Foreign Secretary David Lammy about the plan to find an overseas posting for Matthew Doyle.
In his devastating testimony to MPs on Tuesday morning, the former Foreign Office official said he was uncomfortable with the idea especially as he was having to make seasoned diplomats redundant at the time.
Although Lord Doyle was never given an ambassadorship he was handed a peerage later last year – but was then suspended from Labour over his links to a convicted paedophile.
Revealing the secret March 2025 plan for the first time, Sir Olly told the Foreign Affairs Committee: ‘There were several discussions initiated by No10 with me about potentially finding a head of mission opportunity for Matthew Doyle, who was then the Prime Minister’s Director of Communications.
‘I was under strict instruction not to discuss that with the then Foreign Secretary, which was uncomfortable.
‘I was in the process of talking to the top team about quite a profound restructuring involving job losses, and 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 senior, very experienced diplomats leave the office.’
Sir Olly claimed he did his duty and told No10 about available jobs but admitted: ‘I also felt quite uncomfortable about it, and I kept giving advice that I thought this would be very hard for the office, and was hard for me, personally to defend.’
Lord Doyle at his introduction to the House of Lords in January
He added that Lord Mandelson wanted Lord Doyle to join him in Washington DC.
‘I think subsequently, or maybe simultaneously, Mandelson was asked about whether there was a job that could be made available in the US network.’
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told the Commons afterwards it would have been wrong for Lord Doyle to be made an ambassador.
‘I am, of course, extremely concerned at any suggestion that the Permanent Secretary or Permanent Under-Secretary of the Foreign Office would be told not to inform the Foreign Secretary,’ she said.
‘I can also confirm that the case that he raised, it would not have been an appropriate appointment.’
Lord Doyle was nominated for a peerage by Sir Keir in December and took up his seat in the House of Lords in January.
But just a month later he was suspended by Labour over the revelation that he had campaigned for former Labour councillor Sean Morton after he had been charged with child abuse image offences.
The PM told MPs: ‘Matthew Doyle did not give a full account of his actions. On Monday I promised my party and my country there will be change, and yesterday I removed the whip from Matthew Doyle.’
Sacked Foreign Office mandarin Sir Olly Robbins giving evidence to MPs on Tuesday
Lord Doyle said at the time: ‘I want to apologise for my past association with Sean Morton. His offences were vile, and I completely condemn the actions for which he was rightly convicted. My thoughts are with the victims and all those impacted by these crimes.
‘At the point of my campaigning support, Morton repeatedly asserted to all those who knew him his innocence, including initially in court. He later changed his plea in court to guilty. To have not ceased support ahead of a judicial conclusion was a clear error of judgment, for which I apologise unreservedly.’
