Sir Keir Starmer is under fresh scrutiny after the top civil servant sacked over the Mandelson scandal claimed that the Foreign Office was subjected to “constant pressure” to approve Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador to the US regardless of the outcome of security vetting.
In an extraordinary two-hour-long session, Sir Olly Robbins also told MPs that No 10 had tried to fix a diplomatic role for a long-term Labour adviser and ally of Sir Keir, Matthew Doyle, who has since been promoted to the Lords but shortly after was suspended from the party because of his links to a convicted paedophile.
Sir Olly said that No 10 had taken a “dismissive” approach to vetting and wanted Lord Mandelson in Washington “as soon as humanly possible”. He suggested that, even before the vetting was complete, the PM should have blocked the appointment because of what had already been uncovered by an initial “due diligence” exercise, which found that appointing Lord Mandelson would pose a “reputational risk”.
Sir Keir hit back at Sir Olly’s evidence, telling his cabinet that the senior civil servant had made an “error of judgement”, though he maintained that Sir Olly is a “man of integrity and professionalism”. No 10 also rejected claims that it had been “dismissive” about Lord Mandelson’s vetting, and denied that Sir Keir’s then chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, had “nagged or cajoled or bullied” officials at the Foreign Office to grant Lord Mandelson security clearance.
But, in a blow to Downing Street, the foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said she was “extremely concerned” at Sir Olly’s evidence that he had been instructed not to tell her predecessor, David Lammy, about the search for an ambassadorial role for Mr Doyle, now Lord Doyle, who would not have been an “appropriate” choice. Cabinet minister Ed Miliband said that he and Mr Lammy, now the deputy prime minister, had concerns about Lord Mandelson’s appointment because of the risk that it could “blow up”.
In an emergency debate in the Commons, Kemi Badenoch twice referenced The Independent’s front page last September, which first revealed that Lord Mandelson had failed vetting, as she challenged the government’s version of events. Ms Badenoch said Sir Olly’s evidence showed that the prime minister had misled parliament.
