Who is Olly Robbins? Meet the former top civil servant to give evidence after being sacked by Starmer over Mandelson vetting scandal

Sir Olly Robbins will answer MPs’ questions on Tuesday over claims he failed to inform Sir Keir Starmer about Lord Peter Mandelson’s failed vetting.

The former mandarin was sacked from his post at the Foreign Office last week after it was revealed that the department had overruled a security review of Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment as the UK’s ambassador to the US.

Speaking in the House of Commons on Monday, Sir Keir said he was “frankly surprised” he had not been told of concerns about Lord Mandelson’s appointment and insisted Foreign Office officials “should have and could have told” him.

Sir Olly is understood to have told the prime minister last week that the investigation process did not allow him to release the recommendation made by the UK Security Review (UKSV).

Downing Street said security officials initially refused to allow the disgraced Labor member in, but Foreign Office officials took the unusual step of overriding that advice.

Sir Keir insisted he was unaware that the Foreign Office had overridden the recommendation of security officials not to appoint Peter Mandelson in early 2025.

The former senior civil servant has been asked to formally give evidence before the Foreign Affairs Committee on the review of Lord Mandelson on Tuesday.

Who is Sir Olly Robbins?

Sir Olly Robbins first came into the spotlight during the turbulent Brexit years.

The Oxford-educated 50-year-old was the central figure behind former prime minister Theresa May’s troubled Brexit deal and has been repeatedly criticized by Eurosceptics for her role in the negotiations and for obstructing the process.

He took charge of negotiations with the EU in the middle of talks, after which Brexit secretary David Davis was sacked over a lack of progress, but the deal was repeatedly rejected by the House of Commons.

Before his Brexit fame, he had worked for every prime minister since Sir Tony Blair and was known as a highly effective but low-profile civil servant.

The government student studied politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford in 1996 before moving straight to the Treasury, where he rose steadily through the ranks until Sir Tony approached him to become his principal private secretary.

After the 2010 general election, then prime minister David Cameron appointed Sir Olly as deputy national security adviser, where he was responsible for intelligence, security and resilience.

In that role, he spoke to The Guardian about how to limit reporting on material leaked by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, including classified documents relating to the CIA and GCHQ.

He left government in 2019 before Boris Johnson took office and worked for Goldman Sachs and Hakluyt, a global strategic advisory firm, as managing director of the bank’s investment banking division.

Sir Keir brought Sir Olly back into Government by appointing him as head of the Foreign Office in January 2025.

Lord Mandelson had only been in office for three weeks when the decision was made.

In honor of Baroness May’s resignation, she was given the title of Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, an honor bestowed on outstanding services abroad.

What awaits Sir Olly next?

Sir Olly, once the Foreign Office’s most senior civil servant, was at the heart of the government during the turbulent final year of Starmer’s premiership.

On Tuesday he was formally asked to give evidence regarding Lord Mandelson’s review. A letter from Emily Thornberry, chair of the foreign affairs committee, says the reports “call into question your responses to the Committee when we asked about the appointment process for Lord Mandelson.”

But Sir Olly’s responses may provide unfiltered access to the inner workings of the prime minister’s government and the results of the review, all knowledge of which he vehemently denies.

He had previously told a House of Commons committee that “it was clear that the prime minister wanted to make this appointment himself”. At the debate in November, Sir Olly said he understood Sir Keir had “taken advice and formed a view and we acted on that view”.

His remarks appear to contradict Downing Street’s stance that it overturned the Foreign Office’s decision to investigate the botched inquiry without informing the prime minister.