Prime Minister Keir Starmer is braced for a difficult week as the controversy over Peter Mandelson's security vetting deepens, with senior figures describing Monday as 'judgment day'. The prime minister has faced accusations of scapegoating a senior civil servant after Olly Robbins was forced to quit the Foreign Office following revelations that Mandelson had failed a vetting process for the role of UK ambassador to the US.
Starmer has claimed he was 'staggered' not to have been informed about the vetting failure, but this has been met with widespread scepticism. The Guardian revealed that two other top civil servants, Cabinet Secretary Antonia Romeo and Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary Catherine Little, were aware of the situation last month but did not inform the prime minister until Tuesday. Government sources denied they had been 'sitting on' the information, citing a complex process of assessing risks in sharing highly sensitive data.
Robbins, who is understood to be furious at his treatment, is expected to appear before the Commons foreign affairs select committee on Tuesday. Some ministers fear he may use the opportunity to challenge No 10's account of events, potentially damaging Starmer further. Former senior civil servant Ciaran Martin, a friend of Robbins, said the sacked official had been made a 'scapegoat', arguing that vetting is a risk assessment, not a simple pass or fail, and that there was no duty to disclose details to ministers.
Emily Thornberry, chair of the foreign affairs committee, said Robbins had 'failed to tell us the truth by omission' in previous evidence, and questioned whether there was pressure from Downing Street to approve Mandelson's appointment. Starmer has insisted he was 'furious' about the lack of transparency, while No 10 has squarely blamed the Foreign Office for the failure to inform the prime minister.
