Foreign Office mandarin Sir Olly Robbins was on Thursday night being lined up as the fall guy for the latest Peter Mandelson scandal.
Sir Keir Starmer denied that he or any of his ministers had been aware that the controversial architect of New Labour had failed his developed vetting (DV) for the US ambassador role, only for the Foreign Office to overrule the decision.
The Downing Street denial, which was under severe scrutiny on Thursday night, raises questions about who took the decision to force the appointment through regardless of the red flags.
As the most senior civil servant at the Foreign Office at the time, Sir Olly is firmly in the frame.
Sir Keir announced Mandelson as the UK’s man in Washington in December 2024. No 10 ignored warnings about the peer’s friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein while ‘senior figures’ in the Foreign Office were said to have ‘advised against’ giving the role to someone who was twice forced to resign from Cabinet.
The following month, Sir Olly, Theresa May‘s former Brexit adviser, was appointed Foreign Office permanent secretary, assisting then-Foreign Secretary David Lammy, now Deputy Prime Minister.
Remarkably, it was only after he had been publicly given the job that Mandelson, Labour’s self-confessed Prince of Darkness, faced vetting for it. And it emerged on Wednesday that the UK Security Vetting (UKSV), a division of the Cabinet Office that scrutinises the background of prospective civil servants, turned him down.
Faced with a dilemma – given that his appointment had been announced – officials at the Foreign Office invoked rarely used powers to override the recommendation.
Foreign Office mandarin Sir Olly Robbins (pictured) was on Thursday night being lined up as the fall guy for the latest Peter Mandelson scandal
Sir Keir Starmer denied that he or any of his ministers had been aware that the controversial architect of New Labour had failed his developed vetting (file image)
No 10 ignored warnings about Mandelson’s friendship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The disgraced peer is pictured in his underpants
Following Mandelson’s sacking in September last year – over fresh information about his links to Epstein – the department concealed the failure.
Sir Olly signed off on Lord Mandelson’s £75,000 payout after he resigned, arguing it was ‘good value for money’.
Yvette Cooper, by now Foreign Secretary, and Sir Olly wrote to the foreign affairs committee to say the security vetting was conducted ‘to the usual standard’.
It added that this had ‘concluded with DV clearance being granted by the FCDO’. It did not mention that the UKSV had denied him clearance. It is not known why Lord Mandelson failed the checks, but the process involves the disclosure of highly personal information, including financial and sexual history.
Following his departure, Sir Olly was also questioned at a foreign affairs select committee and again failed to disclose the vetting debacle.
On Thursday night, Labour grandee Emily Thornberry, the committee chairman, said she would haul Sir Olly back to answer questions.
‘Looking at the evidence that was given and the letters that have been written, to be charitable, there are glaring holes,’ the former shadow attorney general said.
‘It really is a question of whether we were knowingly misled.’
During the hearing, Sir Olly said the ‘vast majority’ of vetting reports were ‘relatively straightforward’. He added: ‘Ones that require more senior judgment, and potentially a discussion about managing and mitigating risks, are escalated appropriately.’
Keir Starmer on Thursday night faced furious demands to quit after Downing Street admitted Lord Mandelson was made Britain’s ambassador to the US despite failing security checks
A three-page ‘due diligence’ report supplied to Sir Keir on December 11, 2024, flagged the ties between Mandelson and Epstein
Sir Chris Wormald, who was at the time Cabinet Secretary, also gave evidence. He said the developed vetting process would typically culminate in a report that was received by a ‘line manager – in this case, that would be Sir Oliver – and a decision is taken on whether the relevant level of security clearance is to be granted and what mitigations, if any, are required’.
There were also concerns on Thursday night about why the vetting scandal had not yet been released in documents relating to the case.
It was not contained in a tranche of 147 pages of documents on Mandelson’s appointment released last month after the Tories backed the Government into a corner. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: ‘It looks like there’s been a cover-up, because we had a Humble Address in Parliament where we asked for all of the documents. This did not come out then.’
Cover-up fears were on Thursday night stoked by reports that senior government officials had been considering whether to withhold the vetting failure documents from parliament, according to the Guardian.
The decision on what to release to the intelligence and security committee to scrutinise before making them public – which is for the Cabinet Office – has not yet been taken. Any attempt to withhold details could amount to a breach of a parliamentary motion to release ‘all papers relating to Mandelson’s appointment’.
On Thursday night, the Foreign Office said it was ‘working urgently’ on a request by the Prime Minister to establish the facts around the vetting failure.