Starmer and Ollie Robbins face explosive showdown over Mandelson | Politics | News
Sir Olliver Robbins expected to make explosive claims against Starmer on Tuesday (Image: Getty)
Sir Keir Starmer will be accused of forcing the Foreign Office to approve Lord Mandelson’s appointment despite being personally aware of his friendship with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his business links with Russia and China.
The bombshell claim is expected to emerge when Sir Oliver Robbins, who was sacked as head of the Foreign Office last week after failing to inform Starmer that Mandelson had failed his security review, appears before the foreign affairs select committee on Tuesday.
Starmer accused Robbins of covering up the incident and said it was a “beggar of faith” not to be told. But sources say Robbins will mount a solid defense; A Whitehall insider predicts her appearance will be a “sellout” and she “won’t hold back”.
What will Robbins tell the committee?
The Express understands Robbins will reveal that he never saw the official recommendation from the UK Security Review that Mandelson should be denied entry.
Instead, he reportedly received a verbal briefing from the Foreign Office’s security team, which described Mandelson’s case as “borderline” but stated that UKSV would likely oppose the warrant if the decision was his. Robbins allegedly assessed the outstanding risks and concluded that they could be managed.
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According to The Times, he is expected to draw attention to the “prevailing atmosphere” surrounding the appointment; this includes Starmer choosing to announce Mandelson as US ambassador before even a vetting has taken place; This was against the express advice of the then cabinet secretary, Simon Case (now Lord Case), who recommended that the review be carried out first.)
Robbins is also expected to emphasize that Starmer pressed ahead despite opposition from his predecessor, Foreign Office permanent secretary Sir Philip Barton, and despite Mandelson already knowing about his long-standing friendship with Epstein and potential conflicts of interest regarding his business dealings.
His central claim appears to be based on the principle that the review is a secret process conducted independently of ministers. He will point to a House of Commons debate in September in which Foreign Secretary Stephen Doughty said the review was “rightly independent of ministers”. Robbins plans to argue that he acted within his authority as permanent secretary and did nothing wrong, and that UKSV’s role was ultimately advisory.
What did Starmer tell MPs?
Ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, Starmer took the fight to Robbins in a statement to the House of Commons, accusing senior Foreign Office officials of deliberately hiding the review failure from him and parliament.
“A deliberate decision was taken to preserve this material,” the Prime Minister said. “There was no lack of asking. This was not an oversight. This was a decision. It was a decision not to share this information over and over again.”
Starmer said Robbins withheld information not only from ministers but also from cabinet secretary Sir Chris Wormald and other Downing Street officials. “That’s why I fired him,” he said, noting that he directly challenged Robbins about his account and “did not accept his explanation.”
The Prime Minister also revealed that he had asked the Cabinet Office to review “any security concerns that have arisen” during Mandelson’s time as ambassador to Washington.
Sir Oliver Robbins expected to oppose Starmer’s position (Image: Getty)
Were Starmer’s own MPs critical?
Despite his strong defence, Starmer faced harsh criticism from within his own party. Dame Emily Thornberry, Labor chair of the foreign affairs select committee, said security was “quite secondary” when it came to Mandelson’s appointment and that “getting Peter Mandelson the job was a priority above everything else”.
Labor MP Chris Hinchliff, who was elected with a landslide majority last year, said it seemed “completely incredible” that Robbins would overrule the inquiry agency on a “personal whim”.
He added: “Wasn’t this done because of political pressure from Number 10 to promote a man to whom a certain faction in the Labor Party had been seeking moral and spiritual leadership for years?”
During the statement, two MPs were expelled from the Parliament. Reform UK’s Lee Anderson has been ordered to leave by the Speaker of the House of Commons after accusing Starmer of “lying” throughout the scandal. Shortly afterwards, your party’s Zarah Sultana was also asked to leave after calling the Prime Minister a “blatant liar”.
