Fired United Kingdom Foreign Office chief Olly Robbins said he was pressured to confirm former ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson quickly.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government is under existential threat over Mandelson’s ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which were known when he was appointed ambassador. Starmer has deflected blame to Robbins, claiming he refused to divulge the vetting team’s recommendation against Mandelson’s approval. Robbins defended himself in a testimony to the U.K. Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday, claiming Starmer’s office exerted heavy pressure on him to approve Mandelson’s appointment rapidly.
“I’m afraid I walked into a situation in which there was already a very, very strong expectation … that [Mandelson] needed to be in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible,” Robbins said, claiming the directive came straight from Starmer’s office.
“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 added.
Despite this, Robbins maintained that his office still carried out the proper vetting procedure. Mandelson was able to be appointed despite this, he argued, because Robbins’s office is concerned with national security rather than fitness for office or reputational risk.
He also testified that he never deceived or knowingly misled ministers during his time at his post.
Robbins was removed from his post last week after an investigation. He has faced the brunt of the blame over the Mandelson fiasco from Starmer, who directly blamed him in an address to Parliament on Monday.
Starmer bashed the Foreign Office for having overruled the United Kingdom Security Vetting team’s recommendation not to appoint Mandelson, saying it “did not pass this information to me, to the foreign secretary, to her predecessor, the deputy prime minister, to any other minister, or even to the former Cabinet secretary.”
“I know many members across the House will find these facts to be incredible,” he said. “To that, I can only say they are right. It beggars belief that throughout this timeline, officials in the Foreign Office saw fit to withhold information from senior ministers.”
MPS EJECTED FOR CALLING STARMER A ‘LIAR’ AS HE ADMITS MANDELSON VETTING MISTAKE ‘BEGGARS BELIEF’
His Monday address was met by a recalcitrant Parliament, which repeatedly derailed his speech. Two members had to be ejected over their heckling.
Starmer is facing the worst polling of a prime minister in modern U.K. history, with the Mandelson scandal adding to a cascade of problems that have crippled his government.