Starmer to face MPs as loyalist minister declines to say that sacking Olly Robbins was fair – UK politics live | Politics
McFadden refuses to say he thinks sacking Robbins is fair
In an interview with Times Radio, he said: Pat McFadden He has repeatedly denied that he thought Olly Robbins’ dismissal was fair.
When Kate McCann When asked about this, McFadden replied:
I know Olly Robbins. And as I said, I think very highly of him. I think if the prime minister decides that he doesn’t trust the head of the Foreign Office, then I think it will be difficult to move on.
That’s not to say Olly Robbins isn’t an extremely outstanding civil servant. I think that actually led to a disagreement about the decision.
Olly Robbins decided he didn’t have to share this information with the prime minister. The Prime Minister has a completely different perspective. He thought that information should be shared. The Prime Minister also took his decision based on this disagreement.
When pressed again, McFadden said: “That’s the prime minister’s decision.” When McCann Tell him you didn’t say whether you thought the dismissal was fair or not. McFadden he replied: “Of course, as a cabinet member, I support the prime minister’s decisions.”
McFadden also said he did not know until yesterday that Number 10 was considering appointing Matthew Doyle, then the Prime Minister’s communications secretary, to the ambassadorial post. “I don’t think this would be the right thing to do,” he said.
McFadden’s interview will be seen as further evidence that cabinet ministers who are loyal to Keir Starmer and would be considered members of his inner circle (as long as he is with him) are starting to drift slightly away from the Prime Minister. Yesterday Ed Miliband, The Minister of Energy made clear that he thought it was wrong to appoint Mandelson as ambassador and Yvette Cooper, The Secretary of State strongly condemned Doyle’s job offer (which fell through). Today the Daily Mail highlights Miliband and Cooper’s comments in the splash.
important events
Although he did not say in an interview with Sky News that he fully supported the appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador, Pat McFadden He said he could “see the logic” in this.
When asked if he was worried when he heard about the appointment, he replied:
No, because I could see the logic of it… This was an unusual appointment, a political appointment, actually these things happen occasionally, not very often.
But I could see the logic of this appointment because you were dealing with a very new US administration, and trade would be at the center of our relationship with this administration.
So, since he was a political appointee and someone with business experience, I could understand why such an appointment was made.
And to be honest, so could a lot of other people at the time of the announcement. This was not met with fear.
McFadden refuses to say he thinks sacking Robbins is fair
In an interview with Times Radio, he said: Pat McFadden He has repeatedly denied that he thought Olly Robbins’ dismissal was fair.
When Kate McCann When asked about this, McFadden replied:
I know Olly Robbins. And as I said, I think very highly of him. I think if the prime minister decides that he doesn’t trust the head of the Foreign Office, then I think it will be difficult to move on.
That’s not to say Olly Robbins isn’t an extremely outstanding civil servant. I think that actually led to a disagreement about the decision.
Olly Robbins decided he didn’t have to share this information with the prime minister. The Prime Minister has a completely different perspective. He thought that information should be shared. The Prime Minister also took his decision based on this disagreement.
When pressed again, McFadden said: “That’s the prime minister’s decision.” When McCann Tell him you didn’t say whether you thought the dismissal was fair or not. McFadden he replied: “Of course, as a cabinet member, I support the prime minister’s decisions.”
McFadden also said he did not know until yesterday that Number 10 was considering appointing Matthew Doyle, then the Prime Minister’s communications secretary, to the ambassadorial post. “I don’t think this would be the right thing to do,” he said.
McFadden’s interview will be seen as further evidence that cabinet ministers who are loyal to Keir Starmer and would be considered members of his inner circle (as long as he is with him) are starting to drift slightly away from the Prime Minister. Yesterday Ed Miliband, The Minister of Energy made clear that he thought it was wrong to appoint Mandelson as ambassador and Yvette Cooper, The Secretary of State strongly condemned Doyle’s job offer (which fell through). Today the Daily Mail highlights Miliband and Cooper’s comments in the splash.
Pat McFadden urges Labor MPs to let Starmer ‘do the job he was elected to do’
Pat McFaddenThe Work and Pensions Secretary was one of the ministers sent by No 10 to defend Keir Starmer on air in particularly difficult situations and was on the morning interview tour today.
Inside Interview with Sky NewsMcFadden did not accept that the mood among Labor MPs was rebellious. When asked if he had a message for colleagues who want Starmer to be replaced, he replied:
My message to them is that whatever the reasoning, the Prime Minister accepts that this appointment was a mistake. Being a prime minister means being a decision-making machine. And not all of them will be true.
But this does not mean that you will abandon the leader. This does not mean that you will change the prime minister. I think we’ve had a lot of this in the UK in recent years.
I think we need to keep a prime minister for a while so that he can do the job for which he was elected. It’s a tough story, a tough week.
Former Foreign Secretary Simon McDonald joins former cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill in saying Robbins should get his job back
simon mcdonaldOlly Robbins’ predecessor, who was a permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, joins Mark Sedwill (see 08.35) and others in saying Robbins should get his job back.
In an article for the Guardian, McDonald says:
Robbins did his job, aware of the pressure from across Downing Street, but did not yield. But a misunderstanding of what the job entailed led the prime minister to hastily make the wrong decision. I cannot believe the Prime Minister would have sacked Robbins if he had waited until after the foreign affairs select committee meeting.
The world is an uncertain place. The State Department and its professional head are dealing with simultaneous crises in Ukraine, the Middle East and transatlantic relations. Britain cannot afford a vacancy at the top, nor can it afford to lose the services of a first-rate civil servant whose diligence and thoughtfulness were on full display at Portcullis House yesterday. In my view, there is one immediate conclusion: the government should reinstate Robbins as permanent undersecretary.
And here’s McDonald’s entire argument.
Starmer to face MPs for first time since Olly Robbins’ Mandelson evidence
Good morning. Keir Starmer faces PMQs today; The Peter Mandelson review debate still dominates the Westminster agenda and – in the view of most observers familiar with the views of Labor MPs – the wagons of doom are moving ever closer to the Starmer premiership. In an ideal world, the fate of prime ministers would be determined by big issues, not secret scandals and personality squabbles. But we don’t live in an ideal world; We live in 21st century Britain, where everyone has social media on their phone. Even if you don’t care much for Mandelson, there is a connection between how Starmer handled this and wider government failures.
Starmer’s situation worsened yesterday when Olly Robbins, whom he sacked as permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, gave evidence to MPs. Here’s our overnight story about it Pippa Crerar And Kiran Stacey.
Pippa and Kiran report: “Labour MPs were appalled by repeated reminders that Starmer himself had decided to appoint someone of Mandelson’s stature to the UK’s most sensitive diplomatic post and warned that his leadership was now on borrowed time.”
Last week Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch was trying to accuse Starmer of lying to parliament. He failed because all the evidence shows that he did not succeed. Starmer turned this into a discussion of process in his statement to MPs on Monday. But it does call into question whether he was right to sack Robbins, and many who watched the former civil servant yesterday took the view that Robbins should keep his job.
one of these people Mark SedwillHe served as cabinet secretary from 2018 to 2020. a letter Hearing, he writes in the Times, shows “the calm honesty and intelligence that characterize [Robbins’] a distinguished career of public service” Sedwill said Robbins should get his job back.
The Prime Minister appointed Peter Mandelson against official advice, announced that the appointment had been completed without a vetting, and claimed that he would have changed his mind had he been told that the review process had raised concerns about Mandelson’s previous conduct, which he was already well aware of.
As Robbins explained yesterday, the question for him was not whether he should tell the prime minister something he already knew, but whether those problems could be mitigated enough to allow Mandelson access to the secret intelligence he needed to do his job. He made the professional decision that he could do it. He apparently unwisely shouldered his responsibilities rather than diverted them.
The Prime Minister should withdraw his accusations against Olly Robbins and hand him back to the task the country requires of him to reshape the diplomatic service for the second quarter of the 21st century.
This is bound to feature again at PMQs. It will be one of those days when what matters most will probably not be what is said but the looks on the faces of Labor MPs.
Here is the agenda of the day.
Afternoon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.
14.15: Northern Ireland secretary Hilary Benn gives evidence to the human rights joint committee on the human rights impacts of the Troubles bill.
Afternoon: MPs are discussing Lord’s amendments to the child welfare and schools bill. As Sally Weale reports, the government is accepting a Conservative Party proposal to legalize a ban on smartphones in schools. However, he does not accept his Conservative Party colleagues’ amendment to impose a social media ban on those under 16.
17:00: Reform UK leader Nigel Farage speaks at a rally in Barnsley.
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