Divisions emerge in Keir Starmer’s cabinet over his sacking of Olly Robbins
Keir Starmer is looking increasingly isolated over his handling of the Peter Mandelson scandal with divisions emerging in cabinet over his decision to sack the Foreign Office civil servant Olly Robbins.On another difficult day for the prime minister, the Guardian learned of concerns around the cabinet table, a senior minister refused to say the dismissal was fair and several mandarins called for him to be reinstated.One Labour MP called on Starmer to quit.The scrutiny will continue on Thursday as MPs grill Cat Little, the permanent secretary at the Cabinet Office, over the decision to install Mandelson as Washington ambassador contrary to the advice of vetting officials.Some senior Labour MPs say the prime minister is now living on borrowed time as he continues to come under fire over his decision to appoint the former Labour peer.
One minister said: “Keir’s departure is already baked in.In the meantime, I’ve got very used to compartmentalising trauma.”Another said of the atmosphere: “It’s weirdly resigned and everyone is sort of gallows humour and depressed.”The mood has darkened within the Labour party since the Guardian revealed last week that Mandelson was appointed despite a recommendation from vetting officials that he be denied security clearance.The revelation has reinforced the feeling among many Labour MPs and some ministers that Starmer showed poor political judgment by appointing him in the first place.
Those concerns have been exacerbated by the prime minister’s decision to sack Robbins within hours of the Guardian’s story being published.Robbins confirmed to a committee of MPs on Tuesday that he had not told Downing Street about the vetting concerns, which was the reason Starmer sacked him.The prime minister told the Commons on Wednesday: “Before Mandelson took up his post, [UK Security Vetting] recommended with red flags that clearance should be denied, and there was high concern.“That that was not brought to my attention, or to the attention of the foreign secretary at the time or subsequently, is a very serious error of judgment, and anyone in my position would have lost confidence in the former permanent secretary.”Robbins’ composed appearance in front of the committee however – during which he described the “atmosphere of pressure” imposed by No 10 to confirm Mandelson in post – has persuaded some in Labour that Starmer was wrong to fire him so quickly.
Several cabinet ministers spoke out about that decision during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday described by one source as “gloomy”.Those who intervened included the deputy prime minister, David Lammy, who warned against creating a “them and us” mentality between ministers and officials.The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is understood to have questioned whether it was justifiable to sack Robbins and then to praise him as an outstanding civil servant.One person who attended said Mahmood’s complaint was more about the praise being paid to him rather than the decision to sack him.Three others, including the health secretary, Wes Streeting, and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, urged the prime minister not to pick fights with officials and instead to keep them “on side” – a position with which Starmer agreed.
One senior cabinet minister is understood to believe that the top official should not have been sacked, but should have been suspended instead until all the facts were available.Meanwhile, Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, repeatedly declined to say on Wednesday whether he thought Robbins’ sacking was fair.“I think very highly of him,” he told Times Radio.“If the prime minister has made the judgment that he’s not got confidence in the head of the Foreign Office, then it’s difficult to continue.”McFadden is understood not to be one of those who intervened during the cabinet debate on Tuesday.
One source said: “There was a lengthy discussion in cabinet about the fallout from Robbins’ departure.There were questions about how we were supposed to justify this to others given we were also saying what an honourable civil servant he was.”Some former mandarins are now calling for Starmer to reinstate Robbins.Simon McDonald, one of Robbins’ predecessors at the Foreign Office, wrote in the Guardian on Wednesday that the prime minister had “rush[ed] to a wrong judgment”.The former cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill wrote a letter to the Times saying: “The prime minister should retract his accusations against Olly Robbins and reinstate him to the job the country needs him to do.
”According to a readout from Downing Street, the prime minister told cabinet Robbins “made an error of judgment, but … is a man of integrity and professionalism”, adding: “There are thousands of hard-working civil servants across the country who are full of integrity, doing excellent work every day with a profound sense of public duty.”One person who attended cabinet said the prime minister had spoken first and several others had agreed with him, both about Robbins’ integrity and the importance of keeping the civil service on board.Some in government warn that Whitehall is already in a mutinous mood.One front-bencher said: “Civil servants are openly saying why bother execute orders when they know there will be a new cast list soon.”The pressure is unlikely to break in the coming days as MPs continue to pick over the decision to appoint Mandelson.
On Thursday, Little, the lead civil servant at the Cabinet Office, will testify in front of the foreign affairs select committee.She will be followed next Tuesday by Morgan McSweeney, the prime minister’s former chief of staff.
The Hours won awards for Nicole Kidman’s fake nose – and hearts as a queer classic
Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer prize-winning book The Hours – inspired by Virginia Woolf’s seminal 1925 novel, Mrs Dalloway – imagines one day in the lives of three women separated across time periods. The triptych follows Woolf in the throes of writing Mrs Dalloway; Laura Brown, a depressed housewife who is reading Woolf’s novel in postwar America; and Clarissa Vaughan, a New Yorker who acts as a contemporary embodiment of Woolf’s titular character.Cunningham’s 1998 text, though widely acclaimed, was initially deemed unadaptable due to its nonlinear structure and stream-of-consciousness approach that paid homage to Woolf’s pioneering style. However, since its publication, The Hours (which takes its name from Mrs Dalloway’s working title), has been reinterpreted as an opera and, most notably, a 2002 film directed by Stephen Daldry.As the title suggests, the film explores the ways in which the routine of a single day can be at once beautiful in its ordinariness or seismic in its oppressive mundanity
Vanessa’s a pillar of the hiking community | Brief letters
Your report (Campaigners seek listed status for historic trig points that mapped Britain, 16 April) didn’t mention the Vanessa trig point – Vanessa being a corruption of the Venesta company, which made cardboard tubes into which the concrete for the pillars was poured. These were designed for less accessible places, mostly in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. I was never less than half exhausted when I met one.Margaret SquiresSt Andrews, FifeThe Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link
Zoologist, author and presenter Desmond Morris dies aged 98
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V&A East Storehouse and Norwich Castle among finalists for museum of the year
The V&A East Storehouse, the National Gallery and an accessible castle in Norwich are among the contenders for this year’s Art Fund museum of the year award, the most prestigious UK prize in the sector.The annual prize offers the winner £120,000, with £20,000 going to each of the other finalists, who the Art Fund’s director, Jenny Waldman, said had all “innovated in different ways”.This year’s list is dominated by some of the biggest names in the cultural sector that have undergone big refurbishments or invested in significant new outposts, such as the V&A’s East Storehouse, which will be seen by many as a frontrunner.Based in the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, the space aims to reimagine what a storeroom can be, with partitions removed so visitors can see “and breathe the same air” as the objects. Waldman said the V&A Storehouse, which opened in spring 2025 at a cost of £65m, had broken the boundaries of what a store could be
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From passionate romantasy novels to premium television dramas, culture is bringing the agency, desires and interior lives of women to the fore. It’s proving good for business, but is this a permanent revolution?Do you voraciously read the pages of steamy romantasy bestsellers by Sarah J Maas or Rebecca Yarros? Or flood your group chat with breathless recaps of the latest goings-on in TV series such as Heated Rivalry or Bridgerton? Or even immerse yourself in the divisive and challenging cinematic worlds of Emerald Fennell? If so, you surely can’t have failed to notice that in pop culture, the female gaze – storytelling that highlights the meandering, textured, sublimely messy inner worlds and wants of women – is enjoying an explosion.On TV, you can see it everywhere, in the interior lives and desires taken up by Big Little Lies, Sirens or Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington’s Little Fires Everywhere. Romantasy harbours it in the shape of powerful maidens and sex in fae (fairy) realms, while Fennell’s Wuthering Heights and Promising Young Woman are marketed with the promise of converting women’s experiences into dark beauty on the big screen.A shift, a moment or a commercial juggernaut? That depends how deeply you look
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