Olly Robbins rattles Starmer

Sir Olly Robbins told MPs on Tuesday that Keir Starmer’s account of Peter Mandelson’s vetting left Parliament with a false picture of what No. 10 knew and could have done. (apnews.com) Robbins, the former top civil servant at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, said Starmer’s office pushed to get Mandelson to Washington “as quickly as humanly possible” in January 2025 despite security concerns. He told the Foreign Affairs Committee there was “a generally dismissive attitude” in Downing Street toward the developed vetting process. (apnews.com) The clash goes to Starmer’s statement in the House of Commons on April 20, when he said he learned only on April 14, 2026 that officials had granted Mandelson developed vetting on January 29, 2025 after United Kingdom Security Vetting recommended it be denied. Starmer told MPs no minister, including him and then-Foreign Secretary David Lammy, had been informed at the time. (hansard.parliament.uk) Robbins’ evidence cut at a narrower point: whether Starmer could still have stopped the appointment once the process was moving. Robbins had already told MPs in November 2025 that “the Prime Minister wanted to make this appointment himself” and that officials, through the Foreign Secretary, then sought and obtained the King’s approval. (telegraph.co.uk) That matters because Starmer’s defense has rested on the idea that officials acted without telling ministers and left him with no meaningful chance to intervene. Robbins’ account points instead to a process driven from the top, with No. 10 pressing for speed even after the appointment triggered formal security checks. (committees.parliament.uk) Mandelson’s case has been politically explosive since reports on April 16 said he failed developed vetting in late January 2025 and that Foreign Office officials overruled the recommendation. Developed vetting is the United Kingdom’s highest routine security clearance for access to the most sensitive government material. (reuters.com) The Foreign Affairs Committee had been examining the appointment months before this week’s crisis. In a September 16, 2025 letter later published by Parliament, the Foreign Office told MPs that national security vetting “is not a process which involves No 10” and that Mandelson’s vetting was conducted to the usual developed vetting standard. (committees.parliament.uk) After the new disclosures, the committee summoned Robbins back for fresh evidence on April 21. Its chair said recent reporting had called into question answers given in Robbins’ September letter and his November 3, 2025 appearance alongside then-Cabinet Secretary Chris Wormald. (committees.parliament.uk) Starmer has acknowledged that appointing Mandelson was “a judgment I made that was wrong” and apologized again to Epstein’s victims, but he has denied deliberately misleading Parliament. Downing Street’s position remains that ministers were not told officials had overruled the failed vetting recommendation until last week. (hansard.parliament.uk, independent.co.uk) Tuesday’s hearing did not settle who knew every detail in January 2025, but it sharpened the central question for Westminster: whether Starmer was kept in the dark, or whether he described a process to MPs that his own former top diplomat says No. 10 was already driving. (nytimes.com)