Starmer told to do another U-turn and give ‘distinguished’ ex-foreign office chief his job back
Starmer told to do another U-turn and give ‘distinguished’ ex-foreign office chief his job back
Simon Walters and Millie Cooke Wed, April 22, 2026 at 9:38 AM UTC
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A former cabinet secretary has called on Keir Starmer to reverse his sacking of Foreign Office mandarin Sir Olly Robbins over the Peter Mandelson scandal.
In an extraordinary intervention, Lord Mark Sedwill said the prime minister should “retract his accusations against Olly Robbins and reinstate him.”
Lord Sedwill, who led the civil service between 2018 and 2020, praised Sir Olly’s “calm integrity and intelligence” and declared: “The country needs him.”
He defended Sir Olly’s handling of the security vetting of Lord Mandelson after Sir Keir appointed him as the UK’s ambassador in Washington.
Sir Olly was sacked last week after it emerged he did not tell Sir Keir that Lord Mandelson was cleared to take up the top diplomatic post despite security vetting officials recommending against it.
Mark Sedwill: ‘The prime minister should retract his accusations against Olly Robbins’ (PA)
Lord Sedwill disputed Sir Keir’s claim that he would not have given Mandelson the job if he had known that vetting process had raised concerns about previous political scandals he has been involved in.
The PM was “already well aware” of these matters when he gave Mandelson the US posting and had acted “against official advice” in doing so, said Lord Sedwill.
Far from being at fault for keeping No 10 in the dark, as claimed by Sir Keir, Sir Olly had “shouldered” his duty to mitigate security worries resulting from appointing Mandelson instead of “shunting” it - and been rewarded with the sack.
Lord Sedwill’s comments reflect growing concern that the prime minister’s decision to fire Sir Olly could undermine trust between ministers and civil servants tasked with implementing government policies.
He said in a post on X: “In his evidence to the Foreign Affairs Committee, Sir Olly Robbins displayed the calm integrity and intelligence which have characterised his distinguished career of public service.
“The prime minister appointed Peter Mandelson against official advice, announced that appointment without security vetting having been completed against official advice, and claims that he would have changed his mind had he been told that the vetting process had inevitably raised the concerns about Mandelson’s previous conduct of which he was already well aware.
“As Olly Robbins explained yesterday, the question for him was not whether to tell the prime minister what he already knew, but whether those issues could be mitigated enough to allow Mandelson access to the secret intelligence necessary to do his job.
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Sir Olly Robbins appearing before the Foreign Affairs Committee (House of Commons/UK Parliament)
“He took the professional judgement that they could. Unwisely, as it turned out, he shouldered his responsibilities rather than shunting them.
“The prime minister should retract his accusations against Olly Robbins and reinstate him to the job the country needs him to do of getting the diplomatic service into shape for the second quarter of the 21st century.”
The former Foreign Office chief said there was a “dismissive approach” on vetting from No 10 and an “atmosphere of pressure” to get Lord Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the US over the line in an explosive testimony on Tuesday.
Sir Keir had told the Commons on Monday that he had challenged Sir Olly over why he went against the recommendation of UK Security Vetting (UKSV) and did not accept his explanation.
But Sir Olly said it was normal not to share the findings of the vetting process and described feeling under pressure to clear the peer for the role.
When Sir Olly took over at the helm of the Foreign Office in January last year, Lord Mandelson had already gone through the Cabinet Office’s “due diligence” process, the King and the US had given him approval, and he was already being granted access to “highly classified briefings” on a case-by-case basis – without his security clearance being confirmed, he said.
The Whitehall veteran said this resulted in a “dismissive approach” to developed vetting from Downing Street for the remainder of the process, but insisted it was completed to the normal standard “despite this atmosphere of pressure”.
No 10 has rejected this, saying there is a distinction between “the idea of pressure” and “being kept informed about the process and the progress of the appointment”.
It came as Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA trade union – which represents the UK’s senior public servants and professionals – accused Sir Keir of sending a “real chill throughout the civil service" after his decision to sack Sir Olly.
Mr Penman told BBC Newsnight: “I think the prime minister is losing the ability to work with the civil service.”
“Who in the civil service would now think they would be immune from when it is politically expedient to be dismissed?” he asked.
“That’s not a place any government wants to be because it doesn’t deliver for the people of the country.”
Source: “AOL Breaking”
