Sir Olly Robbins Grilled on Mandelson Vetting Scandal

Sir Olly Robbins, the former top civil servant at the Foreign Office, is set to face a Parliament committee today following his dismissal by the prime minister and foreign secretary. The controversy revolves around his failure to inform Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer that Lord Peter Mandelson failed security vetting for the UK ambassador job in Washington. Robbins, who held the permanent under secretary role since January 2025, argues that his call was justified as Mandelsons appointment was already public and he was bound by the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act from 2010, which blocked him from sharing vetting details with ministers. The prime ministers team, however, insists that the law allowed disclosure and that Robbins had multiple opportunities to loop them in. The committee will focus on whether Robbins shared the vetting info with anyone else and who got what details, with the prime minister hoping his answers will prove ministers were kept in the dark despite multiple openings. The incident has sparked debate on civil service accountability in big appointments and a Commons debate is scheduled after the session.

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