Foreign Office chief Olly Robins to leave role after Mandelson vetting row
Sir Olly Robbins, the Foreign Office’s most senior civil servant, will step down after it was revealed the department had overruled the security review of Lord Peter Mandelson’s appointment as the UK’s ambassador to the US.
Sir Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper are understood to have expressed their loss of confidence in permanent undersecretary Sir Olly.
Security officials had initially refused Labor permission, but Foreign Office officials took the unusual step of overriding that advice.
The Prime Minister was reportedly unaware until earlier this week that Lord Mandelson had been given an enhanced review against the recommendation of the UK Security Review.
It has since instructed officials to reveal all facts surrounding the decision, while the State Department said it was “working urgently” to comply with the investigation.
This came after The Guardian reported that security officials initially refused to give Lord Mandelson permission, but it came after the prime minister called himself Britain’s top diplomat to the US and the Foreign Office took the rare step of overriding that advice.
Sir Keir has previously said due process was followed in the appointment and that Lord Mandelson lied about the extent of his links to pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The Prime Minister has also previously said that an independent review by the security services “allowed him for this role”.
However, according to The Guardian, the precedent was not approved following a secret process carried out by the Cabinet’s UK Security Review (UKSV) last January.
A Government spokesman said earlier on Thursday: “The decision to grant Peter Mandelson enhanced review against the advice of the UK Security Review was taken by officials at the FCDO.”
They added: “Once the Prime Minister was briefed, he immediately instructed officials to establish the facts of why enhanced scrutiny had been granted in order to put in place plans to update the House of Commons.”
Sir Keir now faces calls from across the political spectrum to stand down on the appointment.
Questions about the matter intensified after the first set of documents from the decision, published last month, showed that the former Labor MP was warned of a “general reputational risk” due to his relationship with Epstein before announcing his ambassadorship.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said on Thursday: “It is implausible for Starmer to claim he did not know that Mandelson had failed his vetting.
“If the Prime Minister doesn’t know what’s going on in his own office, he shouldn’t be responsible for our country. He should go.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “If this is true, the Prime Minister should have told Parliament at the first opportunity, not waited for the media to reveal the truth.
“His failure to do this alone is clearly a breach of the Ministerial Code.”
The Green Party and the UK Reform Party have also called for Sir Keir’s resignation.
Lord Mandelson was fired from his post in Washington last September as more details emerged about his relationship with Epstein, who died in 2019.
