21, April
Alex Wickham: Olly Robbins’ evidence and where it leaves Keir Starmer…
Olly Robbins’ evidence and where it leaves Keir Starmer — The top line of Robbins’ testimony is damning and on the worse end of expectations for the prime minister. He accused Downing Street of having a “dismissive approach” to vetting and creating an “atmosphere of pressure” by pressing ahead with the appointment and announcement before vetting had been completed. That is strong language that Starmer will have to answer. — Robbins directed his criticism at the PM’s private office, accusing them of putting his team under “constant pressure” to “get it done” with “an atmosphere of constant chasing.” The Cabinet Office had argued Mandelson didn’t even need to be vetted, he said. He didn’t name them but his testimony puts scrutiny on the PM’s then principal private secretary Nin Pandit and his PPS for foreign affairs Alisa Terry. — In a further revelation, he said No10 pushed for Starmer’s former communications chief Matthew Doyle to be found an ambassadorial role. Doyle has since been suspended from Labour over his links to a sex offender. — However, there were several complicating factors to Robbins’ evidence which exacerbate the mess of the last week. He said there have been a series of misunderstandings about what had gone on. — Robbins confirmed he did not tell the PM, then cabinet secretary Chris Wormald or then chief of staff Morgan McSweeney about the issues with Mandelson’s vetting. That clears Starmer of the original main charge from opponents that he knew what had gone on and lied. Robbins insists he was bound by confidentiality rules governing the UKSV process not to tell anyone. — Robbins also laid out a different series of events surrounding Mandelson’s vetting. He said in fact Mandelson did not “fail” his UK Security Vetting process, and neither did security officials make a firm recommendation against the appointment. Instead, he says UKSV were leaning against recommending that Mandelson get clearance. Robbins and the FCDO security team were then able to put mitigations in place to clear Mandelson for Developed Vetting, he said. He argued that was appropriate and followed the correct process. — Robbins said that despite the pressure he felt from No10, it did not impact the FCDO’s decision to approve clearance for Mandelson. He stood by that decision and implied he would make the same judgment again. He suggested Starmer could have cancelled the appointment once the Cabinet Office Propriety and Ethics due diligence report threw up publicly known issues with Mandelson, but that there was no reason to deny him clearance. Essentially he sought to downplay the whole furore about Mandelson’s vetting issues and his own role and decisions. — So in conclusion Robbins’ evidence is he came under pressure from No10 to “get it done,” clearly not “due process,” yet in terms of his own decision to approve clearance for Mandelson, due process was followed. That leaves a complete mess that is extremely damaging for the government and for Labour MPs to weigh as they consider Starmer’s future.