A former top foreign ministry official said on Tuesday he had faced “constant pressure” from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office to speed up the appointment of his pick as the ambassador to the US, 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 US 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.
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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.
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“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.