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Cabinet Office suggested Mandelson did not even need security vetting, Robbins tells MPs – UK politics live | Politics

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4 months ago

April 21, 2026

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Cabinet Office suggested Mandelson did not even need security vetting, Robbins tells MPs

In his letter to the committee, Robbins says the Cabinet Office suggested that Mandelson would not have to go through security vetting. He says:

After the announcement, I believe the Cabinet Office (CO) raised whether Developed Veƫng (DV) was actually necessary. I understand the FCDO insisted that DV was a requirement before Mandelson took up his post in Washington.

Key events

Henry Dyer on Robbins’ revelation about the Cabinet Office saying security vetting not needed

Henry Dyer is a Guardian investigative correspondent.

Olly Robbins has given remarkable evidence so far. He has spoken about the pressure the Foreign Office faced from Downing Street – weeks before he took the top job – about ensuring Peter Mandelson made it to Washington as ambassador. That included, Robbins claims, a discussion between the Cabinet Office and the Foreign Office as to whether or not Mandelson even needed to go through the vetting process.

Robbins said his predecessor had to be “very firm in person” about the necessity of Mandelson to face vetting in the days leading up to Christmas, in the face of arguments from the Cabinet Office that there was no need for Mandelson to face vetting, given he was a member of the House of Lords and a member of the privy council.

Given nearly all staff – including junior civil servants – in the Foreign Office require DV clearance, it would have been astonishing for the man in the top British diplomatic posting to not have received the same security clearance.

Robbins refuses to say if Mandelson’s security vetting threw up concerns not ‘already in public domain’

Thornberry asked if the vetting process threw up anything “that wasn’t already in the public realm”.

Robbins said he would not answer that because the whole process relies on confidentiality. People comply because they know that they say will not be disclosed.

Thornberry said she was not asking what the new information might have been.

Robbins said, if he said new information came out, people would ask what it was.

Thornberry said she would not do that.

Robbins replied:

I trust you. I’m not sure that the whole of the rest of the world will hold off from wanting to know.

Robbins says Mandelson’s vetting decision ‘borderline’

Robbins confirmed that the decision about Mandelson’s developed vetting was “borderline”. (See 8.57am.)

I was told that UKSV [UK Security Vetting] were leaning towards recommending against, but accepted it was a borderline case.

He said that, although reporting suggests this is process you pass or fail, that is now how the system works.

Robbins says he does not know if Morgan McSweeney was behind No 10 trying to rush Mandelson appointment

Thornberry asked Robbins if Morgan McSweeney, the PM’s chief of staff, was the person putting pressure on the Foreign Office to push through the Mandelson appointment. She said:

We do know that Morgan McSweeney was a protege of Peter Mandelson, and we know that he was very keen on Peter Mandelson getting the job, and we know that he resigned, saying that it was all his fault and that he had advised the prime minister to appoint Peter Mandelson and took it on the chin.

Robbins said, when he said he didn’t know who the individuals were, he meant it.

Cabinet Office suggested Mandelson did not even need security vetting, Robbins tells MPs

In his letter to the committee, Robbins says the Cabinet Office suggested that Mandelson would not have to go through security vetting. He says:

After the announcement, I believe the Cabinet Office (CO) raised whether Developed Veƫng (DV) was actually necessary. I understand the FCDO insisted that DV was a requirement before Mandelson took up his post in Washington.

Thornberry asks about Robbins’ phone.

Robbins says he has had to hand in his official phone. But the messages were downloaded, he says.

Thornberry asks if there was a record of all the calls for No 10.

Robbins says if civil servants minuted every call they took, they would never get anything done.

Robbins says Foreign Office was under ‘constant pressure’ from No 10 to push through Mandelson appointment

Robbins says the Foreign Office insisted developed vetting would have to go ahead.

Thornberry is asking where the pressure for the appointment to go through very quicky was coming from. (See 9.14am.)

Robbins says that in January 2025 his office, and the foreign secretary [David Lammy’s] office were “under constant pressure”.

“There was an atmosphere of constant chasing,” he says.

Asked who this was coming from, Robbins says it was “private office to private office”.

Thornberry asks for the names of those putting pressure on the Foreign Office to expedite the appointment and the vetting process.

Robbins says he does not want to give names.

I didn’t come here today to put scapegoats other civil servants. I came here to make sure the committee understood the circumstances.

Robbins says, when he started as permament secretary, it was not even clear that Peter Mandelson would have to go through the developed vetting process.

Robbins says No 10 wanted Mandelson in US ‘as quickly as humanly possible’ before security vetting started

Robbins starts by saying that when he started as permanent secretary, the Mandelson appointment was well under way. He says:

I wasn’t walking into a vacuum. I arrived to a situation in which a due diligence report had been undertaken into Mandelson by the Cabinet Office, assessing the reputational risks and his fitness for office.

The prime minister had then presumably taken advice on his fitness for office.

The name had been submitted to the king as ministers’ recommendation.

The prime minister had made an announcement that Mandelson was his nominee without caveats.

The British government had sought agreement, the formal diplomatic process for a host government accepting a nominee from the US government, and that had been obtained before I arrived in post.

He’d been given access to the building. You’ve been given access to low classification [information]. And, from time to time for case specific issues, he was being given access to higher classification briefing.

So I’m afraid I walked into a situation in which, there was already a very, very strong expectation [that the appointment would go through].

Robbins also said that “coming from No 10” there was an expectation that “he needed to be in post and in America as quickly as humanly possible”.

The hearing has started.

Emily Thornberry, the chair, started by saying that Robbins did not tell the whole truth about this process when he gave evidence to it in November.

She says she hopes he will be more forthcoming today.

Foreign affairs committee releases letter from Olly Robbins

Here is the letter from Olly Robbins.

Olly Robbins letter Photograph: FAC

The full text of the letter is here.

The foreign affairs committee has released a letter it has received from Olly Robbins. According to Sky News, in it he says he will not be able to talk about some matters related to his sacking because he is taking legal advice.

That seems to be confirmation that he is pursuing an unfair dismissal case.

Robbins gives evidence to foreign affairs committee

The foreign affairs committee hearing is about to start.

There is a live feed at the top of this blog, you may need to refresh the page for it to appear.

According to the report by Steven Swinford and Oliver Wright in the Times, Olly Robbins will tell the foreign affairs committee that he never actually read the full developed vetting report on Peter Mandelson. They say:

The Times has been told that Robbins will use an appearance before the foreign affairs select committee on Tuesday to reveal that he did not see the formal recommendation by UK Security Vetting (UKSV), the body that vets public appointments, stating that Mandelson should not be given clearance.

He was given a verbal briefing by the Foreign Office’s security team and told that UKSV considered Mandelson’s case to be “borderline”, although if the decision was UKSV’s, it was likely to oppose giving him clearance. Robbins assessed the “outstanding risks” and concluded that they could be mitigated.

Robbins is expected to highlight the “prevailing atmosphere” at the time of the appointment, including the fact that Starmer chose to press ahead with announcing Mandelson as ambassador to the United States before security vetting had been conducted.

Ed Miliband says he always thought appointment of Mandelson as ambassador to US would ‘blow up’

Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has said that he always thought that the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US would “blow up”.

In an interview with Sky News this morning, Miliband claimed that David Lammy, the deputy PM who was foreign secretary at the time of the appointment, also had doubts about the appointment.

But Miliband said he did not express his concens to Keir Starmer, in part because it was well known that Miliband and Mandelson did not get on.

They clashed when they were both cabinet ministers when Gordon Brown was PM, and when Miliband subsequently became Labour leader, he marginalised Mandelson – who in turn became a critic of Miliband’s leadership strategy.

Miliband told Sky News:

You’re saying [Mandelson] should never have been appointed [as US ambassador] and I agree with you …

I steered well clear of Peter Mandelson when I became Labour leader in 2010.

Asked what he thought when the Mandelson appointment was announced, Miliband said:

That it could blow up, that it could go wrong.

I had a conversation with David Lammy about it before the appointment, and I said I was worried about it … I think he was worried about it too.

But Miliband did not discuss this with Starmer, he said.

Maybe I wasn’t the person that people would necessarily ask, I think people knew my view on Peter Mandelson.

But Miliband also said he did not think Starmer should resign over this.

You’re asking me should Keir Starmer resign over the appointment of Lord Mandelson? And I’m saying to you, no, I don’t think he should.

Because I think if every time a prime minister made a mistake they resigned, we would shuttle through prime ministers like nobody’s business.

Prime ministers make mistakes.

I think on big judgments for this country, the biggest judgment of all, whether to join the war against Iran, Keir Starmer made a big and fundamental correct judgment.

Voters ‘don’t like’ Starmer, but leadership challenge ‘last thing we want right now’, says Labour MP Sarah Champion

Sarah Champion, the Labour MP who chairs the international development committee, was on the Today programme this morning talking about the mood in the Labour party following the Peter Mandelson crisis. She said that Keir Starmer was unpopular with voters, but not because of this. She said:

I’ll be honest with you, people don’t like Keir on the door but it’s not over this Mandelson thing. They don’t like him personally.

There’s been a fantastic campaign by opposition parties to undermine him …

I think that so much attention being given to the minutiae of this just confirms the Westminster bubble in their mind and they don’t like it.

But Champion also said that a leadership challenge was “absolutely the last thing that we want right now”.

Trump says Starmer made ‘really bad pick’ when he chose Mandelson as US ambassador

Donald Trump seems to be conducting his relationship with Keir Starmer chiefly by online trolling at the moment. He was at it again overnight, with a post on his Truth Social network saying that, when Starmer appointed Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US, it was a “really bad pick”.

Trump post Photograph: Truth Social

Sacked Foreign Office chief Olly Robbins to face MPs’ questions over Mandelson vetting

Good morning. At 9am Olly Robbins will give evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee about the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US. Until last week Robbins was permanent secretary at the Foreign Office and his predecessor but one in that office, Simon McDonald, was the man who terminated Boris Johnson’s career with a revelation showing that Johnson had lied about his knowledge of a sleaze allegation about a minister. Robbins is not expected to produce a bombshell on that scale, but his evidence will be moment of jeodpardy for Keir Starmer nevertheless.

Robbins was sacked because he had not told Starmer that Mandelson failed his security vetting interview after Starmer had announced he was getting the ambassador’s job. If Robbins were to prove that Starmer were told, that would be career ending for the PM. But no one is expecting that.

Instead, the hearing will illustrate the dispute between the PM and the former head of the Foreign Office over whether Robbins should have told Downing Street. Starmer says he should; Robbins is expected to say that that he was meant to keep the process confidential because all that ultimately mattered was the final decision – which is that Mandelson did get vetting approval, because Robbins used his judgment as the decision-maker to ignore the recommendation from officials and grant vetting approval.

The most interesting question is, why? And here it will get difficult for Starmer, because Robbins is likely to argue that he felt under pressure to grant vetting approval because Starmer had already said he wanted Mandelson to get the job, despite knowing full well about the multiple factors that made his appointment problematic.

We know this because Robbins suggested as much when he last gave evidence to the committee about this appointment, in November last year. Robbins told the committee:

Back before Lord Mandelson was announced as the appointee, there was a process … within the Cabinet Office to make sure that the prime minister was aware of Lord Mandelson and the issues around his appointment. There was then a process of clearing his conflicts of interest, which the employing department [the Foreign Office] oversaw, which we have talked about. In parallel with that process, we also went through the standard UK national security vetting process for DV [developed vetting].

Mandleson failed the DV interview. But Robbins was making the point that, by then, Mandelson had already been approved by the Cabinet Office’s due diligence process (a separate vetting exercise). Robbins also told the committee:

By the time we are describing [when DV was carried out], it was clear that the prime minister wanted to make this appointment himself.

In the Times, Steven Swinford and Oliver Wright highlight this in their story on today’s hearing, saying Stamer “will be accused of pressuring the Foreign Office into approving the appointment of Lord Mandelson despite being aware of his friendship with the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his business links to Russia and China”.

And here is the our analysis, by Kiran Stacey, Henry Dyer and Paul Lewis, of all the issues likely to come up at the hearing.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9am: Olly Robbins, the former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, gives evidence to the Commons foreign affairs committee.

9.30am: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet, including a political cabinet session.

9.30am: The Good Growth Foundation holds a day-long National Growth Debate, with speeches from Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, and Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the PM.

10am: Executives from TikTok, Meta, Roblox, and academics give evidence to the Commons education committee on screen time and social media.

11.30am: Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

After 12.30pm: Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, makes a statement to MPs.

After 1.30pm: MPs begin an emergency debate tabed by the Tories on the appointment of Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US.

2.20pm: John Swinney, the Scottish first minister, speaks at the STUC conference.

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Driver killed in Bedford train crash named

Published

2 months ago

June 21, 2026

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The family of Shaun Burton, say they are “devastated” by the loss.

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Spain v Saudi Arabia: World Cup 2026 – live | World Cup 2026

Published

2 months ago

June 21, 2026

info@oxinfo.co.uk

Key events

In the opening half an hour against Cape Verde, Mikel Oyarzabal, the centre-forward, did not get a single touch.

Oyarzabal profile

Kyle Green gets in touch: “Your highlighting of Lalas and his absurdity is something that has prevented me from wanting to watch the coverage on Fox. While every channel has its pros and cons I just can’t.

“I’m 45 and probably the youngest of anyone who remembers him as a player instead of an opinionated insert insult here. As for the match this could be more competitive than it looks on paper Spain need a win the pressure is on them. Saudi Arabia could hold out for a draw and see what happens in their last match. “

News from the England camp, and it seems to be good news on Declan Rice.

“I’m ready and fit, raring to go. I was feeling a little bit of neural pain in my hamstring, which I was managing from after Christmas with Arsenal for a very long time. Obviously, not a lot of people would have known that. It was all behind-the-scenes stuff but it was a smart decision.

“In the end, that last 20 minutes is probably where you pick up the most, and it’s where you play a 70-minute match. But that last 20 is where you really feel your body going for it. And I think it was a smart decision because the last few days I felt really, really good.”

Alex Reid has penned today’s weekend special Football Daily.

Portugal v Uzbekistan on Tuesday enticingly pits the incredibly nice, incredibly 41-year-old-superstar-tolerant Roberto Martínez against Fabio Cannavaro, who’s won a Ballon d’Or as a player and the Chinese Super League as a coach. While the fixture following that game really does see the dream of Thomas Tuchel – in his first international job with England – taking on Queiroz, who is in charge of his ninth national side with Ghana.

The expected formations are 4-2-3-1 for Spain, and 5-3-2 for the Saudi Arabians.

The Saudi team features two Donis changes: Ali Lajami, a defender, and Nasser Al Dawsari, a midfielder, are preferred to Mohammed Abu Al Shamat and Mohamed Kanno. You may recall Salem Al Dawsari, the Saudi captain, as the man who scored the winner against Argentina.

An entertaining read, even for those of us who have just seen the clips.

In a conversation where his co-panelist is casually reminiscing about his days playing alongside Messi or exchanging shirts with Ronaldo Nazário at the World Cup, what exactly is Lalas going to talk about – coming on as a second-half substitute for Earnie Stewart in a friendly against Scotland in 1998? Helping the Kansas City Wizards finish last in the 1999 MLS Western Conference? Did Lalas enjoy an elite playing career? No. But does he do the background reading that could compensate for his relative lack of standing in a conversation with titans like Henry and Zlatan? Also no. But is he charming or funny or charismatic or otherwise magnetic on screen? Eh, no.

For the record, I once interviewed Alexi Lalas on the challenge of playing against Romario in the 1994 World Cup. He had this to say:

“He could kill you in so many different ways. If you remember from that World Cup, he scored so many types of goals. That ranged from solo adventures to an outside-of-the-right-foot half-volley off a corner kick. Romario was both the most difficult to play against and the best that I have faced.

“Roberto Baggio was doing his thing, but in terms of consistency and living up to the hype, he [Romario] was the best. As with all stars, there was a moment when the fans sit up in their seats, and that was a feeling I got with Romario. When it got close to him and the potential for his involvement in a play was there, everybody sat up in their seat. They knew that something spectacular would be happening.”

Saturday’s match reports here.

The Saudi Arabia coach, and Blackburn legend, Georgios Donis, spoke about the challenges facing his team: “Spain is not the same ⁠team when Yamal or Williams are on the bench.

“While they still have plenty of possession, they lack the individual one-on-one penetration when these two are ⁠missing. I’m not saying it’s a problem for Spain, but when those players are missing, they play in a different way. We saw this very clearly against ‌Cape Verde.

“We are playing against one of the best teams in the world, and it’s very important that when you play against these kinds of teams, you ‌should enjoy the experience and respect the opponent, but not too much.

“It is very hard for any team playing against Spain to have any time in possession. So what we must do is to be more in control of our movement and compact, and when the ball goes through the lines, be able to defend dynamically.

“It’s nice to see miracles in football, and we’ve seen favourites losing against underdogs. Of course, it’s great for Saudi football to have a great memory of the result against Argentina, but we aren’t drawing anything from that.

“I think we’ll feel more pressure in that [Cape Verde] game than we will against Spain.”

The Spain coach, Luis De La Fuente had this to say in his Saturday press conference: “This generation of footballers is highly competitive and really fired up… It’s going to be a completely different story,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Saturday. There is no drama or crisis. The bottom line is simply that we need to win tomorrow.”

Four changes for Spain: Lamine Yamal, Pedro Porro, Dani Olmo and Alex Baena also come into the side with Marcos Llorente, Fabian Ruiz, Ferran Torres and Gavi dropping out.

The teams – Lamine Yamal starts

Spain: Simon, Porro, Cubarsi, Laporte, Cucurella, Gonzalez, Rodri, Yamal, Olmo, Baena, Oyarzabal. Subs: Raya, Joan Garcia, Pubill, Grimaldo, Eric Garcia, Llorente, Merino, Torres, Fabian, Gavi, Pino, Williams, Zubimendi, Munoz, Iglesias.

Saudi Arabia: Al Owais, Abdulhamid, Tambakti, Lajami, Al Amri, Al Harbi, Nasser Al Dawsari, Al Khaibari, Al Juwayr, Al Buraikan, Salem Al Dawsari. Subs: Al Aqidi, Al Kassar, Majrashi, Yahya, Al Shehri, Al Boushal, Kadesh, Al Johani, Al Ghannam, Al Hajji, Al Hamdan, Mandash, Kanno, Thakri, Abu Al Shamat.

Referee: Raphael Claus (Brazil)

Perhaps one of the Saudi -players can write themselves into this high-grade selection?

Perhaps it can be their goalkeeper.

Al-Aqidi profile

Madrid screening of Spain v Saudi Arabia cancelled due to heat

The public screening of Spain’s World Cup match against Saudi Arabia in Madrid on Sunday has been cancelled because of extreme heat forecast for the Spanish capital, officials said.

The match, due to kick off at 6pm local time on Sunday, had been scheduled to be shown on a giant screen installed by the Spanish football federation (RFEF) at a fan zone in Plaza de Colón in central Madrid.

Madrid city council and the federation decided to cancel the screening after national weather agency AEMET issued an orange heat warning – the second-highest level – for the Madrid region, with temperatures forecast to reach 40C.

“The decision has been taken with the aim of protecting the health of attendees, event staff and support services involved in the event,” Madrid city hall said in a statement, apologising for any inconvenience.

Officials urged supporters to watch the match indoors in air-conditioned spaces and avoid prolonged exposure to the heat.

Large parts of Spain are experiencing unusually high temperatures for June as a mass of hot air from North Africa moves across the Iberian Peninsula.

A total of 13 of Spain’s 17 regions are on orange alert for heat on Sunday, while the northern Basque Country bordering France is on red alert, the highest level.

Authorities advised residents and visitors to take precautions during the heatwave, including drinking water regularly, staying in cool environments, limiting outdoor physical activity during the hottest hours of the day and taking extra care of vulnerable people. AFP

Can Saudi Arabia repeat the magic of 2022?

Argentina arrived in Qatar on a 36-game unbeaten run. When Lionel Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 10 minutes, a comfortable afternoon seemed in the offing. Saleh al-Shehri and Salem al-Dawsari had other ideas, Argentina had three goals disallowed for offside in the space of 13 minutes and the greatest comeback in Saudi Arabia football history was made. Argentina went on to lift the trophy, while defeats to Poland and Mexico meant the Saudis did not reach the knock-out stage.

Unai Simon over David Raya is a controversial choice for De la Fuentes. The Arsenal keeper could lay claim to being Europe’s best this season.

“Those at the Champions League final had a few more days, so I got there on the Wednesday night,” Raya says. “I arrived a bit before Fabián [Ruiz]. I was saying hello to some of the others in reception when he arrived. I went to say congratulations; that was almost the first thing I did. I couldn’t really talk [to him] after the final; I just didn’t have it in me. The next day we talked about the game properly. Just two mates chatting … I was happy for him that he could lift the trophy for a second time.”

A high pressure game for the European champions, as Sid Lowe reports.

“If we had scored one, the game would have changed,” Martín Zubimendi said. Immediately after the game, De la Fuente had offered a simple analysis: when the ball doesn’t want to go in it doesn’t want to go in, he insisted. Spain had racked up 27 shots, after all. Ferran Torres had hit the bar and seen another clear opportunity saved. Vozinha, the 40-year-old goalkeeper who stopped that, saved six more and was named the man of the match. “There’s nothing to reproach the team for,” Rodri said. “We generated chances but couldn’t put it away; the good thing is they created almost nothing.”

We wait to see what role Lamine Yamal will play today. His coach would surely like to be able to use him.

The worst mistake we could make would be to compare him to anyone. He is the midst of a process. He has exceptional footballing maturity and lives it all with total naturalness. He has great serenity and strength. We have to let him follow his path but those players who have something different are ready for that. They’re geniuses, like Dalí [who] can paint a picture, or Michelangelo. They’re different. What is exceptional to us, isn’t to them. In those extremes, they feel comfortable. Why? Because they are different. What we think is exceptional, they consider normal.

Lamine Yamal profile

Preamble

Spain’s campaign did not get off to a flying start, and Luis de la Fuentes may wake up in the night to visions of Cape Verde’s Vozinha. He will have Georgia on his mind ever since Monday. Saudi Arabia are no pushovers and gave Uruguay a scare in their opening match. Memories of downing Argentina four years ago still abound, and so Spain might beware. They can ill afford to go into the final game with Uruguay at a disadvantage. All eyes on Lamine Yamal, whose fitness situation remains opaque, though Spain need their other forwards to come to the party.

Kick-off 5pm UK, 1pm ET, 2am AEST. Join me.

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