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Olly Robbins’ account of Mandelson vetting piles pressure on Keir Starmer

Sacked civil servant tells select committee of ‘pressure’ to give clearance and ‘dismissive’ attitude to vetting The civil servant sacked by Keir Starmer has given a devastating account of his government, saying… Grouped from 6 articles across 2 sources.

6 reports2 sourcesApr 21, 2026, 8:23 PM
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The GuardianApr 21, 2026, 8:23 PM

Olly Robbins’ account of Mandelson vetting piles pressure on Keir Starmer

Sacked civil servant tells select committee of ‘pressure’ to give clearance and ‘dismissive’ attitude to vetting The civil servant sacked by Keir Starmer has given a devastating account of his government, saying Downing Street put huge pressure on the civil service to approve the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Washington ambassador despite the concerns of vetting officials. Olly Robbins, the former top official at the Foreign Office, said No 10 took a “dismissive” attitude to vetting, and Mandelson was given access to the Foreign Office building and to “higher-classification briefings” before he was granted security clearance. Continue reading...

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The GuardianApr 21, 2026, 11:03 AM

Olly Robbins says he faced ‘constant pressure’ to get Mandelson in post

Sacked civil servant discloses he overturned vetting ruling without knowing full extent of national security concerns UK politics live – latest updates The sacked senior civil servant Oliver Robbins has said he was subject to “constant pressure” when he arrived in the Foreign Office to get Peter Mandelson in post as soon as possible. He said the Cabinet Office urged the Foreign Office to allow Mandelson’s appointment as the UK’s ambassador to the US without the usual vetting process but the Foreign Office pushed back and the vetting eventually went ahead. Continue reading...

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The GuardianApr 20, 2026, 8:05 PM

Starmer accuses Robbins of obstructing truth about Mandelson vetting

PM admits he made mistake in choice of ambassador as he makes high-stakes statement to parliament over scandal Keir Starmer has accused Olly Robbins of deliberately and repeatedly obstructing the truth about the Mandelson vetting scandal before a high-jeopardy appearance of the sacked top official before MPs on Tuesday. Six days after the prime minister said he had learned that his pick for Washington ambassador had failed security vetting, Starmer admitted his decision to appoint him had been a fundamental mistake. Continue reading...

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DWApr 20, 2026, 6:08 PM

UK: Starmer says he would't have appointed Mandelson as US envoy if he'd known he failed vetting process

Under-fire Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the House of Commons that neither he nor his ministers were told that the former ambassador to the US and Epstein associate Peter Mandelson had failed his security vetting.

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The GuardianApr 20, 2026, 6:15 PM

How safe is Starmer’s premiership after his Mandelson vetting statement to MPs?

Despite his explanation and the need for political stability, the PM is still unpopular – and Olly Robbins has yet to give his side of the story Labour MPs frustrated with the lack of a clear mission from Keir Starmer’s No 10 have often urged the prime minister to be more forceful in his arguments, to prosecute his values, to find an enemy to define himself against. The prime minister has found one: Olly Robbins. Starmer prosecuted his case against the former Foreign Office chief on Monday with the vigour of his former life at the bar. Continue reading...

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The GuardianApr 20, 2026, 6:11 PM

Starmer says it ‘beggars belief’ he wasn’t told about Mandelson vetting failure as he faces down the Commons – UK politics as it happened

MPs jeered as PM said it is ‘incredible’ he was not told full story and he was wrong to appoint Mandelson as US ambassador At his press conference Nigel Farage was asked about reports saying that Keir Starmer knew about the security concerns about Peter Mandelson that led to him failing his security vetting interview. That was a reference to the Telegraph splash , which says: Senior Whitehall sources told The Telegraph that the UKSV [UK Security Vetting] findings largely restated security risks that had already been drawn to Sir Keir’s attention. One senior source with knowledge of the process said: “The reality is that Starmer had already been warned about the major risks and he had waved them away.” Sources have told The Independent that MI6 failed to clear the Labour peer largely because of concerns over his business links to China. However, there were also worries that his past links to the disgraced financier and convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein “would compromise him”. It’s impossible for the prime minister to say the warning lights weren’t flashing. And if you were prime minister and there were news reports last September that your ambassadorial choice had failed vetting, you would have thought perhaps he might have had some curiosity to try to find out whether this had really happened or not. I just find the whole thing totally incredible. Incredible. There is no way the prime minister couldn’t have known. The Labour backbenchers are not yet of a mood to get rid of their prime minister, although after 7 May they just might be. Continue reading...

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