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Naming Mandelson as ambassador before vetting was mistake, minister says

Robbins and did not appear to understand how vetting worked. “The dismissal of Sir Olly risks having a serious and sustained chilling effect on serving and prospective civil servants,” O’Donnell wrote. He said Starmer

‘Self-serving stuff’: anger remains high in Whitehall over Olly Robbins sacking

Olly Robbins remains white hot, several days on from Keir Starmer’s decision to sack the senior Foreign Office civil servant. “It’s just total self-serving, narrow, selfish, political endgame stuff,” said one supporter

No 10 had 'dismissive attitude' to Mandelson vetting, says sacked Foreign Office chief

Robbins has accused Downing Street of taking a "dismissive approach" to vetting during Lord Mandelson's appointment as the UK's ambassador to the US. Sir Olly was sacked as Foreign Office boss last week

Key points as MPs question former Foreign Office boss on Mandelson vetting row

reasonable" that he should have been involved. But he also noted that it was a political appointment rather than an internal civil servant recruitment and concluded he was "a bit conflicted" on the question

Ex-FCDO chief tells MPs he had concerns over Mandelson’s Epstein links

reasonable for the head of the Foreign Office to be involved in thinking around what is our major top bilateral ambassador post”. But he said he accepted it had been a “political matter

Starmer’s chief secretary consoled Mandelson after dismissal as US ambassador, undisclosed texts show

reasons – including before the dismissal of Peter Mandelson or the passing of the humble address – myself included.” More than 1,500 pages of documents were published by the government on Monday afternoon, which the government

PM's ex-chief of staff to give evidence on Mandelson vetting

Robbins accused No 10 of a "dismissive" attitude towards the process - a claim Downing Street has denied. Cat Little, the most senior civil servant at the Cabinet Office, will appear before the committee on Thursday

Olly Robbins refused to hand Mandelson vetting summary to Cabinet Office, says Cat Little

Olly Robbins refused to hand Peter Mandelson’s vetting summary to the Cabinet Office, the civil servant who leads the department has said. The summary – which would have revealed that Robbins, the now-sacked Foreign

Ministers have no authority to withhold Mandelson vetting file, committee says

Olly Robbins, granted Mandelson his “developed vetting” status anyway, paving the way for him to take up his post in Washington the following month. Robbins, who has since been sacked by [Keir Starmer](https://www.theguardian.com

No, Minister: the week Keir Starmer had his own Sir Humphrey moment

Olly Robbins, [fired by the prime minister](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/apr/16/foreign-offices-top-civil-servant-olly-robbins-leaves-post-in-mandelson-vetting-row) as the Foreign Office’s permanent secretary after not informing him that Peter Mandelson had failed his vetting for the role of ambassador in Washington

Olly Robbins and Mandelson’s vetting: what did he do, why – and who knew?

reason, Robbins sought to interject with an answer to quite a different question. “May I cut in, Chris?” Robbins said, before informing the committee that it was not normally the case that decisions would