A former top foreign ministry official said yesterday he had faced “constant pressure” from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office to speed up the appointment of his pick as the ambassador to the US, deepening a row that threatens the British leader.
A war of words over who should ultimately take the blame for appointing Labour veteran Peter Mandelson to Britain’s highest diplomatic post despite his history and known ties to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has piled pressure on Starmer, prompting calls for his resignation.
Starmer has said he was “wrong” to appoint Mandelson to the role and has expressed regret, but on Monday put the blame firmly on foreign ministry officials for failing to tell him a security vetting body had advised against the appointment.
Yesterday, it was the turn of Olly Robbins, the foreign ministry’s former top official who was sacked late on Thursday after Starmer and foreign minister Yvette Cooper said they had lost confidence in him, to mount his defence.
While much of what he said backed up Starmer’s account of being told Mandelson had been granted clearance for the role, Robbins spoke of the pressure to speed things up and that the appointment had been treated as virtually a done deal.
“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 quickly as humanly possible,” a sometimes visibly upset Robbins told a parliamentary committee.
“I think throughout January (2025), honestly, my office, the foreign secretary’s office, were under constant pressure,” Robbins said, describing himself at one point as a “scapegoat”.
“There was an atmosphere of constant chasing,” he said, describing “frequent phone calls” from Starmer’s private office.
Starmer’s spokesperson rejected Robbins’ allegations.
Robbins’ account is likely to increase the pressure on Starmer, who after winning the largest majority in modern history for Labour at a national election in 2024 is facing new calls to step down over a scandal which has run for months.
Labour legislators said they did not expect an immediate move to oust Starmer, especially before local elections in England and regional votes in Wales and Scotland on May 7.
Yet Robbins’ comments will do little to quell concerns over what some in Starmer’s party say is a bunker mentality and a lack of political nous.
Labour legislators yesterday highlighted Robbins’ revelation that Downing Street had also pushed for an ambassadorial job for Matthew Doyle, Starmer’s former senior communications director.
Doyle was removed from the Labour Party over his links to a convicted sex offender and he has apologised for his actions, but one legislator described the attempt to get him a job by Downing Street as “pretty damning.”
Robbins said when he took office on January 20, 2025, Mandelson’s appointment had already been announced, approval had been given by King Charles, it had been agreed by the US government, and Mandelson was being granted access to highly classified briefings on a case-by-case basis.
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