Embattled PM goes to see the King (however not fairly like that… but): Starmer places on a compelled smile whereas assembly with royals on the British Museum as he reels from Mandelson scandal

Keir Starmer today met with the King as his premiership plunged deeper into crisis – although the Prime Minister was not yet offering his resignation to the monarch.

The embattled premier joined with King Charles and Queen Camilla at the British Museum as they viewed a final design for the national memorial to Queen Elizabeth II.

The PM appeared to fix a grin for Tuesday’s event, which came shortly after a former senior official dropped fresh bombshell claims in the Peter Mandelson scandal.

Olly Robbins, who Sir Keir sacked as the Foreign Office’s top civil servant last week, spent the morning giving explosive testimony to a House of Commons committee.

But the PM tried to put his mounting woes to one side as – less than two miles from Parliament – he greeted the King with a broad smile and patted Camilla on her arm.

Sir Keir also met with celebrity guests, including artist Tracey Emin and The Traitors presenter Claudia Winkleman, who are both trustees of the British Museum.

And the PM spent time with George Osborne, the former Tory chancellor and current chair of the British Museum.

Mr Osborne is also said to have been on Sir Keir’s shortlist to be Britain’s ambassador to the US, before the PM made the fateful decision to appoint the now-sacked Lord Mandelson.

As he arrived at the British Museum on Tuesday, Sir Keir smiled and shook hands with Mr Osborne and ignored shouted questions from the media about Lord Mandelson, simply replying ‘morning’.

It came as the Sir Olly Robbins told MPs this morning there had been a ‘dismissive approach’ to Lord Mandelson’s security vetting from Downing Street.

The Foreign Affairs Committee also heard claims that Sir Keir’s former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, called Sir Olly’s predecessor insisting: ‘Just f***ing approve it.’ 

In another damaging revelation, Sir Olly said that No10 tried to get Sir Keir’s spin doctor Matthew Doyle a plum posting as a ‘head of mission’ abroad.

Lord Doyle later left Government, and has since been stripped of the Labour whip over campaigning for a councillor who had been charged with child sex offences. He denied seeking a diplomatic post today.

In the wake of the latest Westminster drama, Sir Keir gathered with royals and other guests in the British Museum’s circular Reading Room to view a scale model of the national memorial to Queen Elizabeth II.

The King praised the final design as ‘fantastic’ on what would have been his mother’s 100th birthday. 

Charles told architect Norman Foster: ‘It’s a wonderful idea for the bridge to be based on the Russian fringe tiara, the one that my mama wore at her wedding’.

He described the memorial, set for St James’s Park in central London, as ‘fantastic’ and praised the idea to add ‘subtle lighting’ at night to the new Queen Elizabeth Bridge, which will replace the current Blue Bridge.

Camilla also remarked on the glass and steel bridge, inspired by the Queen’s wedding tiara also known as the Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara, saying: ‘I love that bridge. It’s just lovely. It has a lovely twinkle.’

She expressed surprise when told by Lord Foster that the bridge will eventually be lifted into place overnight so as not to disturb use of the park.

The Queen called the plan ‘extraordinary’

The King was also shown a likeness of his mother, in the form of a maquette which depicts Elizabeth II as a young woman in her 20s in her Order of the Garter robes.

Sculptor Martin Jennings told him the bronze statue, which on its plinth will eventually stand seven metres tall, will be positioned with the Queen’s head ‘slightly turned to catch the evening light’.

Charles was told the figure showed the Queen in the early years of her reign, with the King saying ‘yes, absolutely’.

The Duchess of Edinburgh, who was joined by the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester at the event, declared it was how the late Queen would like to be remembered in her younger days.

‘It’s a lovely statue. It’s how she would like to be remembered as a young woman,’ Sophie said.

She added as she examined the maquette on its plinth: ‘It’s quite high.’

Mr Jennings revealed it would be the same height as the statue of George V outside Westminster Abbey.

A maquette of the King’s father Philip, around the same age as the Queen’s, shows the duke in his naval uniform with his hands behind his back.

It prompted a chuckle from Charles when Mr Jennings described Philip as a ‘tall, thin figure’.

Full-scale versions of the statues will form part of the permanent memorial in the park, close to Buckingham Palace, with the national tribute set to be completed in 2028.

The area will also incorporate a family of gardens with meandering paths, a Commonwealth Wind Sculpture by artist Yinka Shonibare, and a bust of the Queen in her 50s or 60s by sculptor Karen Newman on Birdcage Walk.

Marking the 100th anniversary of his mother’s birth, Charles, in a video message, paid a heartfelt tribute to his ‘darling Mama’, but said much of life today would likely have ‘troubled her deeply’.

He said he took heart from her belief that ‘goodness will prevail’ and that a ‘brighter dawn is never far from the horizon’, and said the milestone anniversary should be celebrated as a ‘life well-lived’ rather than marking an ‘absence’.

 Lord Foster famously once criticised the King when he was the Prince of Wales for using his ‘privileged position’ to intervene in the architectural development of the former Chelsea Barracks.

The memorial is one of three projects honouring the Queen’s legacy, with a new charity The Queen Elizabeth Trust, and a Digital Memorial, which asks for the public’s memories of the monarch at Queenelizabeth.com, also launched on Tuesday.