The top civil servant at the Foreign Office, Sir Olly Robbins, has been forced to resign after a Guardian investigation revealed that his department overruled a decision to deny Peter Mandelson security vetting clearance. Mandelson, who was appointed UK ambassador to the US by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, failed a developed vetting process in January 2025, according to multiple sources.
Security officials recommended that Mandelson not be granted clearance, but the Foreign Office used a rarely invoked authority to override that recommendation. Downing Street insisted that Starmer had no knowledge of the security advice until this week, and that responsibility lay with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
Sir Olly Robbins was told he had to resign after Starmer and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper lost confidence in him. In September, Robbins had told MPs in a letter co-signed with Cooper that Mandelson's vetting was 'conducted to the usual standard set for developed vetting'.
The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, said that if Starmer had misled the House of Commons over the vetting, he 'must take responsibility'. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said: 'If Keir Starmer has misled parliament and lied to the British people, he has to go.'
It has also emerged that senior government officials have been considering whether to withhold from parliament documents that would reveal Mandelson was not given vetting approval. Any attempt to withhold the documents from the intelligence and security committee could breach a parliamentary motion to release 'all papers relating to Mandelson’s appointment'.
A Downing Street spokesperson said the government was 'committed to complying' with the parliamentary motion, but that documents requiring redaction on national security grounds would be provided to the ISC. The identity of the Foreign Office official who made the decision to overrule UKSV remains unknown.
