A senior British civil servant dismissed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday that the prime minister's office had created an "atmosphere of pressure" and shown "a certain dismissiveness" toward the security vetting process for Peter Mandelson's appointment as ambassador to the United States — testimony that has deepened a crisis threatening Starmer's leadership.

Olly Robbins, the former top official at the Foreign Office who was fired last week after the affair became public, told the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee that Mandelson had not simply failed his security check. Rather, the vetting experts had classified him as a "borderline case" and indicated they were inclined to advise against the appointment. Robbins said he had then assessed that the risks associated with Mandelson were manageable and gave the green light himself — though he noted he never saw the written vetting details, as only an oral briefing is standard practice, and that sharing such results with politicians is entirely out of the question. Robbins also revealed that by the time he became the senior responsible official in January 2025, Mandelson's appointment had already been publicly announced, confirmed by King Charles III, approved by Washington, and accreditation proceedings had begun — meaning the vetting process was essentially running behind a fait accompli.

The row centres on Mandelson, a veteran of the Labour Party who served as a senior minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and who was appointed by Starmer in December 2024 before being dismissed in September 2025. The controversy escalated after The Guardian revealed that Mandelson had not passed security vetting prior to taking up the post, in part due to his known ties to the late American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Starmer has said he was "wrong" to proceed with the appointment, but insists officials failed to inform him that the vetting body had advised against it — a claim he repeated in a packed House of Commons on Monday. Robbins' account, however, complicated that version of events.

Robbins also made a striking disclosure on a separate matter: a person inside 10 Downing Street, whose identity he declined to reveal, had in March 2025 asked him to find a senior ambassadorial post for Starmer's then-communications chief Matthew Doyle — and had requested the approach be kept secret from the foreign secretary. Nothing came of it, but the allegation has added to an already damaging picture of conduct within the prime minister's office.

The opposition has seized on the affair with growing force. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch accused Starmer of scapegoating civil servants and misleading parliament, and demanded his resignation, as did other opposition parties. Senior ministers have rallied to Starmer's defence, with Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall insisting the prime minister would have withdrawn the appointment had he known the vetting outcome. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper announced an internal inquiry following Robbins' testimony. The affair matters beyond Westminster: it has exposed tensions between political and official decision-making at the heart of government, and has provided fuel to parties seeking to capitalise on perceptions of Labour chaos.