No 10 ‘secretly pushed Olly Robbins to give ambassador job to disgraced Starmer aide’

In another embarrassing revelation for the Labor government, the former senior Foreign Office civil servant told MPs that No 10 was secretly pressing for a senior diplomatic post to be given to one of Sir Keir Starmer’s key aides.

The prime minister’s former communications chief, Matthew Doyle, who was promoted to the House of Lords in December last year, was stripped of the Labor whip earlier this year over his links to a convicted pedophile.

But Sir Olly Robbins told members of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee that there was pressure from Downing Street to give Lord Doyle an ambassadorial post before he becomes a precedent.

Sir Olly said he “felt quite uncomfortable” at the idea of ​​finding such a role for which the government would be “very difficult” to defend.

He also explained that he was “strictly instructed not to discuss this matter with the then secretary of state, and that was troubling.”

Current foreign secretary Yvette Cooper said she was “extremely concerned” by Sir Olly’s statement that he was instructed not to tell his predecessor, David Lammy, and that Lord Doyle would not be a “suitable” choice.

Responding to questions from the Foreign Office, Ms Cooper said: “Of course, I am extremely concerned about any suggestion that the permanent secretary or permanent under-secretary of the Foreign Office would be told not to inform the secretary of state. I can also confirm that the case he makes would not be an appropriate appointment.”

In February, Labor said Lord Doyle had been suspended after it was revealed he had helped campaign on behalf of his friend, convicted pedophile and former councilor Sean Morton.

The scandal emerged just months after Peter Mandelson was fired as US ambassador after new information emerged about his long-term friendship with convicted pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

To limit the damage, sources in Downing Street reported that No 10 was unaware that Lord Doyle was campaigning on Morton’s behalf when he was appointed to the Lords; However, there were media reports that they had ties before he was sworn in as a Labor Party member.

Lord Doyle, who worked in opposition for Sir Keir and will enter Downing Street with him in 2024, campaigned on Morton’s behalf when he ran as an independent in May 2017, four months after Morton appeared in court on charges of possessing indecent images of children. Morton later confessed to the crime.

Sir Olly said the offer to find an embassy came shortly after he took over the reins of the Foreign Office in January 2025, at a time when senior diplomats were at risk of losing their jobs as part of a restructuring at the department.

Sir Olly said there were “a number of discussions that Number 10 has initiated with me” about potentially “finding a chief of duty opportunity for Matthew Doyle”.

The former senior civil servant said he was not sure “exactly who is behind” the proposal or “how serious it is”.

“I had a very hard time thinking about how to explain to the office what Matthew’s credentials should be in a key head of mission role when we were in danger of very senior, very experienced diplomats leaving the office,” he said.

Sir Olly claimed that Lord Mandelson was also asked about the possibility of Lord Doyle taking up a post in Washington.

“I think later, or perhaps simultaneously, Mandelson was asked if there was a job that might be available in the US network,” he told MPs.

“And I think the fact that Number 10 was interested in potential diplomatic options for Doyle was probably a little more widely known than I realized at the time.”

The colleague apologized for supporting Morton before the case against him was concluded, saying he believed the pedophile’s claims of innocence at the time.

Lord Doyle resigned as the Prime Minister’s communications chief last March, but the subsequent row over his friendship with Morton raised fresh questions about Sir Keir’s decision to nominate him for the peerage.

Sir Keir said the former chief aide “failed to make a full disclosure” about his ties to the pedophile councilor when he was elevated to the House of Lords.

Labor campaign group Mainstream said Tuesday’s revelations showed the “culture of centralization and patronage” at the top of Labor was “enabling disastrous missteps and undermining our relationship with the public”.

“An already difficult election could now become even more difficult for hard-working Labor members and candidates who campaigned tirelessly ahead of May,” the group said in a statement.