Olly Robbins’ account of Mandelson vetting piles pressure on Keir Starmer
The civil servant sacked by Keir Starmer has given a devastating account of his government, saying Downing Street put huge pressure on the civil service to approve the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Washington ambassador despite the concerns of vetting officials.Olly Robbins, the former top official at the Foreign Office, said No 10 took a “dismissive” attitude to vetting, and Mandelson was given access to the Foreign Office building and to “higher-classification briefings” before he was granted security clearance.In more than two hours of precisely worded and detailed testimony to the foreign affairs select committee (FAC), Robbins said No 10 had created an “atmosphere of pressure” which made it almost impossible to deny clearance for Mandelson – who had already been announced for the senior diplomatic posting.He also confirmed that senior government officials – including within the Cabinet Office – had been in dispute last week, as revealed by the Guardian, over whether to release documents relating to Mandelson’s vetting through the humble address process.Starmer has come under intense pressure over the Mandelson scandal, with criticism even from within his own cabinet.
Ed Miliband, the energy secretary and a predecessor as Labour leader, told broadcasters: “You’re saying he should never have been appointed and I agree with you.”Labour MPs have been appalled by the recurring reminder that Starmer personally decided to appoint someone with Mandelson’s reputation to the UK’s most sensitive diplomatic post, and warned that his leadership is now on borrowed time.The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), which this week is going through hundreds more files relating to Mandelson’s time in Washington, has now been handed some vetting information including a short summary document with details of his personal, financial and business dealings.However, the committee is understood to be furious at the lack of key documents relating to Robbins’ decision to overturn a recommendation from UK Security Vetting (UKSV) to deny clearance, and his failure to record notes of crucial meetings over the appointment.The ISC process is expected to conclude within days, and the Cabinet Office will then sift through the documents, making redactions, meaning they will not be released before parliament rises next week ahead of the May elections – meaning the scandal will return in the aftermath.
In an extraordinary parliamentary hearing which lasted more than two-and-a-half hours, Robbins told MPs:He had granted clearance without being aware of the full extent of national security concerns over the Labour peer, making his decision without seeing the UKSV form – which said there was a “high” overall concern and concluded “clearance denied” – or even knowing the details,Downing Street had tried to find a senior diplomatic role for another of Starmer’s close allies – his former communications chief Matthew Doyle – and asked Robbins to keep David Lammy, then foreign secretary, in the dark,He had not told Starmer, Lammy or anyone else in No 10 about UKSV’s recommendation, only that clearance had been approved, bolstering the prime minister’s claims that neither he nor any of his aides knew,In the hearing, Robbins told MPs: “I walked into a situation in which there was already a very, very strong expectation … that he needed to be in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible,”It would have been “very difficult indeed” if he had denied Mandelson security clearance, he said, adding: “The PM’s nominee had been put out there to the public, announced, blessed by the king, agreed by the US government …“All I can do is agree with the premise that against that backdrop, the Foreign Office saying: ‘OK but sorry, we can’t grant him clearance,’ would have been a very, very difficult problem.
And a difficult problem I would have been landing the foreign secretary with, and the prime minister,”Robbins said the pressure was applied mainly by the prime minister’s private office, which is staffed by civil servants,But he added: “I think that the private office would only have been [putting on] this pressure themselves if they were under pressure,”Starmer hit back later on Tuesday, telling his cabinet Robbins was a “man of integrity and professionalism” but had made an “error of judgment” while No 10 denied that it had taken a dismissive attitude towards vetting,Darren Jones, who announced a leak inquiry over the Guardian’s revelations, told MPs that the sacked official should have informed the prime minister that UKSV had recommended denying clearance.
After the hearing, FAC chair Emily Thornberry said it was right that Robbins had lost his job over the saga.“I had a great deal of sympathy for him and he’s in a very difficult position,” she said.“I still, though, don’t think it was wrong for him to lose his job.I’m afraid I don’t.”Starmer had appointed Mandelson before Robbins took up his role at the Foreign Office, and also before security vetting had taken place, with senior officials telling the Guardian it was clear to them that No 10 wanted Mandelson in Washington whatever the risk.
Robbins said that before his own appointment there had been a “live debate” about whether Mandelson should have to undergo any vetting before he was appointed.He said his predecessor, Philip Barton, had to be “very firm in person” for the vetting to go ahead.In a letter to the committee before testifying, he said he was briefed on the UKSV finding orally in January – this is understood to have been delivered by Ian Collard, the department’s chief property and security officer – and that no documents were presented to him.He said UKSV considered Mandelson a “borderline” case and was leaning towards recommending that clearance be denied.In his evidence to MPs, Robbins said he was not made aware of the tick-box form recommending that Mandelson not be granted clearance.
Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, told MPs during an emergency debate on the scandal: “The prime minister personally decided to appoint a serious, known national security risk to our most sensitive diplomatic post.“The prime minister sent a known security risk to Washington, to a position where he would see our most important allies’ top secret intelligence.”
Sir Hayden Phillips
Who do you send for when the mountain of flowers left by mourners at the gates of Kensington Palace for Diana, Princess of Wales threatens to catch fire from the heat of its decomposition? Or when you need to persuade a thousand senior Whitehall officials that they can no longer park on Horseguards? Or set up a National Lottery? Take action on Press Regulation? Find a compromise on party political funding? Or abolish the role of lord chancellor without rewiring the entire constitution?For more than 30 years, the answer to all these challenges and many more was to call for Hayden Phillips.The “mandarin’s mandarin”, one of the most influential Whitehall officials of his time, or “an oily Welshman” in the words of one disgruntled MP (Phillips was not Welsh), he was a byword in the corridors of power for his appetite for good living and the range of his contact book.When Margaret Thatcher wanted to find £50m from public funds to spend on the Thyssen art collection, Phillips – a Treasury official at the time – immediately called the director of the National Gallery, Neil MacGregor, to ask what his priority purchase for the nation would be if he had £50m.According to Phillips’ memoir, armed with MacGregor’s advice, he advised Thatcher that the Thyssen collection was not value for money. In the event the government offered for the collection, but it eventually went to Madrid
UK politics: Matthew Doyle claims he never sought ambassador role – as it happened
Matthew Doyle, the former No 10 communications chief who got a peerage after he left Downing Street, has said that he “never sought” a post as an ambassdor and that he was “never aware of anyone speaking to the FCDO about such a role for me”.He was responding to the revelations at today’s committee hearing with Olly Robbins.I will post the full quotes when I get them.UPDATE: See 3.53pm for the full quote
UK agriculture deal with EU will not remove all red tape, peers told
A new agriculture agreement with the EU will not wipe out all Brexit paperwork but might pave the way for sales of Scottish langoustines and oysters, the House of Lords has heard.The UK and EU are close to finalising a sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement to reduce Brexit trade barriers, and while it will have “modest” impact on the UK economy the agreement will be significant, peers on the European affairs committee were told on Tuesday.It would spell the end of physical checks on farm produce and the end of the need for veterinary certificates, which cost £200 each.It could also remove the need to label food as “Not for EU”, which has been “a significant problem” for wholesalers and distributors, said William Bain, head of trade policy at the British Chambers of Commerce.Bain, who is Scottish, said it could reopen the door for exports of Scottish langoustines and molluscs
Olly Robbins: I was asked to find job for Starmer aide and not tell David Lammy
Downing Street pushed the Foreign Office to find a diplomatic role for Keir Starmer’s communications chief over the head of the then foreign secretary, the former head of the department has revealed.Testifying to MPs at parliament’s foreign affairs select committee on Tuesday, Olly Robbins said he had several conversations with No 10 about finding a role for Matthew Doyle, who was later suspended as a Labour peer after it emerged he had campaigned for a friend charged with possessing indecent images of children.Robbins said he had been asked not to mention the idea to David Lammy, who was foreign secretary at the time.Robbins described the conversations as part of more general pressure from people at the top of the government to place senior political figures in senior diplomatic posts. He made the revelation while testifying to the committee about the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Washington ambassador
Starmer still faces more questions than answers after Olly Robbins’ quietly damning defence | John Crace
Well, what would you do? You’re a top civil servant with more than 25 years of government service. You’ve worked for Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May. You went through Brexit hell as a lead negotiator. You were sacked by Boris Johnson and were then brought back by Keir Starmer.You land a plum job as permanent undersecretary in the Foreign Office and do your boss a favour by appointing his man as ambassador to the US
Olly Robbins says he faced ‘constant pressure’ to get Mandelson in post
The sacked senior civil servant Oliver Robbins has said he was subject to “constant pressure” when he started working at the Foreign Office to get Peter Mandelson in post as soon as possible.He said the Cabinet Office urged the Foreign Office to allow Mandelson’s appointment as the UK’s ambassador to the US without the usual vetting process but the Foreign Office pushed back and the vetting eventually went ahead.In an extraordinary development, Robbins, who was sacked by Keir Starmer last week after the Guardian disclosed he had overturned a recommendation from UK Security Vetting (UKSV) to deny clearance for Mandelson, suggested he had done so without knowing the full extent of national security concerns over the Labour peer.The former permanent secretary made his decision to give clearance without seeing the UKSV form – which said there was a “high” overall concern and concluded “clearance denied” – or even knowing the details.Robbins also confirmed the Guardian’s story that senior government officials had considered whether to withhold from parliament sensitive documents about the vetting process, a story which was denied last week by the prime minister’s chief secretary, Darren Jones
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