Sir Olly Robbins grilled on Mandelson errors – 13 issues we realized
Sir Olly Robbins, who was sacked by Keir Starmer last week, claimed the Government was ‘dismissive’ of vetting Peter Mandelson – and claimed he was ordered to find a job for a key Starmer aide
A sacked Foreign Office mandarin sensationally accused No10 of being “dismissive” of the need to vet Peter Mandelson.
Sir Olly Robbins told a committee of MPs that it was “not a given” that the so-called Prince of Darkness would be vetted at all before being sent to Washington. Keir Starmer is fighting for political survival after it emerged last week that UK Security Vetting (UKSV) did not approve his clearance.
The furious PM said he was never informed, and neither was his team, and Sir Olly was sacked on Thursday evening. In a lengthy grilling by the Foreign Affairs Committee, the dismissed official also claimed he was pressured to find an ambassadorial job for one of the PM’s key aides.
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1. Pressure to get Mandelson in place ‘as quickly as possible’
Sir Olly said that the department was under pressure to get Mandelson in place “as quickly as humanly possible”.
The sacked mandarin told the committee that when he took the top job at the Foreign Office last January, Mandelson’s name had already been announced and he had access to IT systems.
He said: “I arrived to a situation in which a due diligence report had been undertaken into Mandelson by the Cabinet Office, assessing the reputational risks and his fitness for office…
“The Prime Minister had made an announcement that Mandelson was his nominee without caveats… He’d been given access to the building. He’d been given access to low classification IT.
“And, from time to time for case specific issues he was being given access to higher classification briefings. So I’m afraid I walked into a situation in which, there was already a very, very strong expectation… coming from No10 that he needed to be in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible.”
He said Downing Street wanted this done before Trump’s inauguration.
2. No10 was ‘dismissive’ of vetting Mandelson
One of the biggest revelations is that Sir Olly did not believe it was always set in stone that Mandelson would be vetted at all.
Describing the pressure to get the ambassador in place quickly, he told the committee: “So I’m afraid what that translated into, for my team in the Foreign Office and certainly the handover briefing I was getting as I arrived at post, was what I felt was a generally dismissive attitude to his vetting clearance.
“The focus was on getting Mandelson out to Washington quickly.” He claimed that No10 showed no interest in the actual vetting itself – just that it was done quickly.
He said there was “very frequent” chasing from No10, asking if vetting had been completed. He said: “(There was) never any interest, as far as I recall, in whether but only an interest in when.”
And crucially he said: “A position taken from the Cabinet Office was that there was no need to vet Mandelson, he was a member of the House of Lords, he was a privy counsellor.”
3. ‘Not a given’ Mandelson would be vetted at all
The sacked civil servant said: “I’m afraid I don’t think, at the point of his appointment and for days thereafter, it was actually a given that he would be vetted. And he later said: “The briefing I had on arrival was that there had been a position taken from the Cabinet Office that, as I say, some of Madison’s status meant that vetting might be unnecessary and that that had been a discussion for several days after the press notice.
“It had been resolved before Christmas and resolved in the FCDO favor. And I only mention it, chair, because I think to say now that it was always clear that his appointment was subject to vetting, is something that the committee should consider, whether that’s something they need to take more evidence.”
4. Mandelson was ‘borderline case’
Sir Olly told the committee that UK Security Vetting (UKSV) was “leaning toward” turning down Mandelson’s clearance – but the decision was taken that concerns could be managed.
He said he had not been presented with documents, but was instead given an “oral briefing” on UKSV’s findings by Foreign Office security chief Ian Collard. The former mandarin said: “The meeting I had with the director on January 29 was an oral briefing. No documents were presented to me, nor did I particularly expect there to be.
“I have never seen a UKSV document. I was briefed that UKSV considered Mandelson a borderline case, and that they were leaning towards recommending that clearance be denied, but that the Foreign Office’s Security Department assessed that the risks identified as of highest concern by UKSV could be managed and or mitigated.”
5. Refusal to say what concerns about Mandelson were
Pressed by Dame Emily to explain what the concerns about Mandelson were, Sir Olly refused to say.
Doing so, he argued, would undermine the vetting process itself. He said: “I may no longer be an official, but I don’t think I can open that box. This system absolutely depends on candidates for vetting, knowing that the government will completely respect the confidences that they share.”
Asked whether the reason was already in the public domain, Sir Olly said: “I’m afraid I’m not prepared to do that, chair. What that leads to is, of course, then an absolute storm of questions as to what that issue was.”
6. Pressure to find job for ex-Starmer aide
Sir Olly said he was put under pressure to find a job for Mr Starmer’s former director of communications.
The PM wanted to make Matthew Doyle an ambassador, MPs heard. But incredibly he was advised not to tell former Foreign Secretary David Lammy – something that made him “uncomfortable”.
Sir Olly told the committee: “There were several discussions initiated by No10 with me about potentially finding a head of mission opportunity for Matthew Doyle, who was then the Prime Minister’s director of communications, and I was under strict instruction not to discuss that with the then-Foreign Secretary, which was uncomfortable.”
He then said the idea was dropped after a couple of days. Doyle was later appointed to the House of Lords.
7. Normal for PM not to be told about vetting
Sir Olly said it was perfectly normal for the PM not to have been briefed about Mandelson’s vetting. Mr Starmer was furious to learn about UKSV’s findings and sacked the Foreign Office chief as a result.
Sir Olly claimed there is a “dangerous misunderstanding” of confidentiality around the process. He told MPs: “I hope it’s clear from everything I have said so far that I believe that’s a misunderstanding and a dangerous misunderstanding of the necessity of confidentiality of the process.
“I’ve been interested, of course, over the last couple of days to read Lord Hague on this today and David Lammy even on Saturday, the former foreign secretary, deputy prime minister, where both have said in different language that they have never had vetting issues discussed with them in all their time as a minister and nor would they expect to.
“I’m afraid that’s exactly the culture I have been brought up in. It’s supported by guidance. You are not supposed to share the findings and reports of UKSV other than in the exceptional circumstances where doing so allows for the specific mitigation of risk.”
8. ‘I’m not naming other civil servants’
Sir Olly refused to throw other civil servants under a bus.
Pressed to name names of those applying pressure to get the Mandelson vetting completed, he told Dame Emily: “I may no longer be a civil servant, but I didn’t come here today to put to scapegoats other civil servants. I came here to make sure the committee understood the circumstances.”
He said that officials in No10 were likely under the same pressure as he was experiencing.
9. Robbins said he followed rules to the letter
Sir Olly, facing probing over why he had not kept notes, hit back saying he had followed procedure to the letter.
He went on to say that his team carried out vigorous checks on Mandelson. He said: “I’ve been a civil servant for a quarter of a century.
“I could recite the code to you. And I believe it, you know, along with probably the Book of Common Prayer, is one of the two things I can hold in my memory, and I’ve abided by it.
“And you will find, when the records are finally opened, you will find a record of the decision. It is clear what I what I am saying to you is that whilst there was an atmosphere of pressure, the department rigorously followed the process and we did so, frankly, as I understand it, despite some in government believing it was not a process we ever needed to follow.
“And I just ask you to to reflect for a second. I don’t think my life might have been considerably easier over the last two or three days if I wanted to come to this committee and said I was put under such pressure, I just agreed to it.
“But that wouldn’t be true.”
10. ‘Just f***ing approve it’ claim
Sir Olly was asked by Dame Emily whether Mr Starmer’s former chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, had phoned his predecessor Sir Philip Barton to say “just f***ing approve it” (Mandelson’s approval).
The former mandarin said he had no recollection of the precise words, but conceded that Sir Philip had conveyed a sense of urgency in his handover.
Sir Olly said: “Philip’s handover to me has contributed to my strong sense that there was an atmosphere of pressure and a certain dismissiveness about this DV process … I don’t remember Philip using those words.”
11. ‘Very conscious’ that torpedoing Mandelson would have been a problem
Pressed by the committee on whether he had “no option” but to approve Mandelson, Sir Olly admitted it would have caused “a real problem” for the Government.
But he said he tried not to let this influence his actions. Sir Olly said: “I was very conscious that if we went through the rigor of our process and decided against granting clearance, that would have caused a real problem for the government and a problem for the country.
“But as I’ve been trying to explain, I was conscious of that without letting it influence my judgment, let alone transferring any of that atmosphere onto the people charged with that through making that assessment.”
12. Leak of Mandelson findings is ‘grievous breach of national security’
Sir Olly voiced his alarm that information about Mandelson’s vetting had made its way into the public domain.
The Guardian newspaper published the revelation on Thursday that UKSV had not cleared the disgraced peer. The ex-mandarin said: “I’m deeply concerned about it, honestly. I mean, it probably flows from the rest of the evidence I’ve been giving you this morning.”
He said: “That trust once gone, cannot be got back. Thousands of people go through this process. Thousands and thousands of documents and sensitive issues and operations depend upon it.
“And I am struck and saddened that within I think, days, probably only a small number of days of the Cabinet Office, for their own reasons, deciding to open that up to share what they thought they’d found and their perceptions of it internally with No10… I hope they’re being very rigorously investigated and the prosecutions will result, because this is a grievous breach of national security.”
13. Swipe at Keir Starmer over sacking
Sir Olly has suggested that he did not have a chance to defend himself before being sacked.
He told the committee: “What I would say is I regret that I, in my view, didn’t have some of points that the Prime Minister and others are making about the Foreign Office’s decision making and about my accountability, I regret that those were not put to me before I received a letter dismissing me.”
