By Elizabeth Piper, Sarah Young and Sam Tabahriti
LONDON, April 21 (Reuters) – A former top foreign ministry official said on Tuesday he had faced “constant pressure” from Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office to speed up the appointment of his pick as the ambassador to the U.S., deepening a row that threatens the British leader.
A war of words over who should ultimately take the blame for appointing Labour veteran Peter Mandelson to Britain’s highest diplomatic post despite his history and known ties to late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has piled pressure on Starmer, prompting calls by critics for his resignation.
Starmer has said he was “wrong” to appoint Mandelson to the role and has expressed regret, but on Monday put the blame firmly on foreign ministry officials for failing to tell him that a security vetting body had advised against his appointment – something, he said, would have stopped him from employing the new ambassador.
On Tuesday, it was the turn of Olly Robbins, the foreign ministry’s former top official who was sacked late on Thursday after Starmer and foreign minister Yvette Cooper said they had lost confidence in him, to mount his defence.
He was quick to shift the focus to Starmer’s office.
ROBBINS SAYS HE WAS UNDER ‘CONSTANT PRESSURE’
“I walked into a situation in which there was already a very, very strong expectation … that he needed to be in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible,” Robbins told a parliamentary committee.
“I think throughout January (2025), honestly, my office, the foreign secretary’s office, were under constant pressure,” Robbins said. “There was an atmosphere of constant chasing,” he said, describing “very frequent phone calls” from the private office of Starmer’s Number 10 Downing Street.
Robbins’ account is likely to increase the pressure on Starmer, who after winning the largest majority in modern history for Labour at a national election in 2024 is facing new calls to step down over a scandal which has run for months.
Labour lawmakers have said there would not be an immediate move to oust Starmer, especially as the party is expected to suffer big losses in local elections in England and regional votes in Wales and Scotland in just over two weeks.
But the return of the focus on Starmer’s Downing Street operation will do little to appease those lawmakers who have repeatedly raised concerns over what some call a bunker mentality and lack of access.
WAR OF WORDS WIDENS BETWEEN OFFICIALS AND DOWNING STREET
Robbins said that when he took office on January 20, 2025, Mandelson’s appointment had already been announced, approval had been given by King Charles, it had been agreed by the U.S. government and Mandelson was being granted access to highly classified briefings on a case-by-case basis. He said it would have damaged relations with the U.S. if the foreign office had blocked the appointment at that stage.
It was not clear whether Downing Street even wanted the foreign ministry to complete so-called developed vetting clearance – a status that allows individuals access to information regarded as top secret, Robbins said.
It was down to the foreign ministry to complete that process, he said, and officials had stuck to a system whereby reports from a unit called UK Security Vetting were never shared with ministers to protect the candidate’s confidentiality.
But he did say the unit had advised the appointment was a borderline case and they were leaning against granting clearance – a message Starmer says his government never received.
“Whilst I think the department felt under pressure, we were proud of the fact we’d not bowed to that pressure,” Robbins said.
Robbins’ defence again cranks up pressure on Starmer, who had won a brief reprieve from his critics after limiting Britain’s role in the Iran war.
Even some in top team of ministers have said they were concerned about Mandelson’s appointment.
Asked what went through his mind over the decision to appoint him, energy minister Ed Miliband told Sky News: “That it could blow up, that it could go wrong.”
“I had a conversation with David Lammy (then foreign minister and now deputy prime minister) about it before the appointment, and I said I was worried about it.”
Robbins also revealed that Starmer’s office had been pushing for an ambassadorial job to be found for Matthew Doyle, the prime minister’s former senior communications director who has been removed from the Labour Party after he campaigned for a man who was a convicted sex offender.
Doyle has apologised for his actions.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Piper, additional reporting by Sarah Young, Sam Tabahriti, Muvija M, editing by Kate Holton and Tomasz Janowski)
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