Mandelson latest: PM admits No 10 considered scandal-hit Matthew Doyle for ambassador role

The prime minister is due to face another challenging grilling at PMQs
Sir Keir Starmer is facing accusations that a “toxic culture” has taken hold of No 10, with the prime minister facing heat from his own backbenchers.

Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne calling for “a thorough review of the political operation which brought the Prime Minister to power”, while another Labour MP called for a “full, transparent, independent inquiry”.

Sir Keir is due to face another difficult Commons grilling in PMQs as the vetting scandal around Lord Peter Mandelson shows no sign of abating.

On Tuesday, former Foreign Office boss Sir Olly Robbins , who was sacked last week , claimed there had been an “atmosphere of pressure” to get Lord Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the US over the line.

Speaking to the Foreign Affairs Committee, he said that Downing Street had a dismissive approach to vetting and wanted Lord Mandelson in Washington “as soon as humanly possible”.

The claim was rejected by No 10, but later some Labour MPs voiced discontent during an emergency debate in the Commons called by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves told an event on Tuesday that she backed the under-fire prime minister, insisting there “is no leadership contest” when asked about the possibility of challengers to Sir Keir’s authority.

Starmer is 'resilient' and 'determined to carry on', minister says
Cabinet minister Pat McFadden has described Sir Keir Starmer as “very resilient” and called on disillusioned Labour MPs not to “ditch the leader”.

Asked on Sky News if the mood was mutinous among backbenchers, he said: "No, I don't think it's mutinous.

"Look, no one wants the week to be dominated by the story that it's been dominated by for the last week.

We've got local elections coming up, I've got announcements today on youth employment."
Asked what his message is to MPs considering removing Sir Keir Starmer, McFadden replied: "My message to them is the prime minister has acknowledged this appointment was a mistake, whatever the rationale was for it [...] And to be a prime minister is to be a decision-making machine.

And they won't all be right.

"But that doesn't mean you ditch the leader.

It doesn't mean you change prime minister.

I think we've had too much of that in the UK in recent years.

"I think we need a period of keeping a prime minister for a period of time to let him do the job he was elected to do.

This is a difficult story, it's a difficult week."
He added that Starmer is "determined to carry on", describing him as "very resilient".

Mandelson vetting scandal 'haunting' the PM, former comms director says
A former No 10 communications director has said that the Labour government are struggling to contain the Lord Mandelson vetting scandal.

James Lyons, who served under Sir Keir Starmer for seven months last year, said that Sir Olly Robbins “unilaterally decided to disregard red flags” about his appointment in failing to inform the prime minister.

He added that claims Sir Keir lied to parliament are “completely untrue”.

However, he said: "The Prince of Darkness is haunting the prime minister and this administration."
He adds: "It's certainly true that the government have struggled to get ahead of the Peter Mandelson scandal."
Watch: Emily Thornberry says Keir Starmer will 'keep his job'
Ex civil service boss calls for Sir Olly Robbins to be reinstated
Former civil service chief Lord Sedwill said Sir Olly should be reinstated.

“Olly Robbins acted with the calm integrity and intelligence that have defined his public service,” he said.

“His job was to judge whether Mandelson’s risks could be mitigated, not tell the PM what he already knew.

“Starmer should retract his accusations and reinstate him.”
Doyle did not have 'the experience to become an ambassador', McFadden says
Pat McFadden has insisted that yesterday was the first he had heard of Matthew Doyle being put forward for an ambassadorship, telling Sky News he does not believe Lord Doyle "had the experience to become an ambassador".

It came after Sir Olly Robbins claimed that Downing Street secretly pushed for Lord Doyle to be given a top diplomatic job in another embarrassing revelation for the Labour government.

"I don't know what conversations took place between No 10 and the Foreign Office about that, but it didn't come to anything.

I don't think Matthew had the experience to become an ambassador."
He added: "I don't think he would have been right for such a post.

I think it's right that no appointment was made."
Starmer ‘fighting for his career’ amid ‘chaos’ at Westminster, John Swinney says
With the Conservatives and the SNP calling for a vote of confidence in Sir Keir Starmer over his decision to appoint Lord Peter Mandelson as the UK’s ambassador to the US, the Scottish First Minister said “the whole Westminster Government has descended into absolute chaos”.

He was speaking ahead of campaigning in Edinburgh for the Holyrood elections in just over two weeks, with the SNP leader bidding to be returned as Scotland’s first minister.

Mr Swinney said: “At a time when people are facing sky-high food costs, energy bills and petrol prices, they need a government that is focused on taking action to support them.

“Instead, they have a Westminster establishment that is engulfed in scandal and asleep at the wheel.”
The UK can’t claim to take national security seriously at all after these Mandelson revelations
Britain’s rulers and civil servants have shown themselves to be incompetent custodians of national security at a time when the UK is facing a live hybrid war from Russia, economic and security contagion from the Middle East, and subtle invasion by Chinese intelligence and business interests.

The spectacle of Olly Robbins , late of the Foreign Office, telling MPs that the Cabinet Office didn’t seem fussed whether or not Peter Mandelson had passed security vetting for the post of ambassador to Washington, will have caused our allies to splutter with horror.

Add that to Keir Starmer’s seemingly complete lack of curiosity about whether his appointment to the most sensitive post in British diplomacy could be trusted, and it sends a signal that Britain just doesn’t know what it is up against.

Read the full analysis from our world affairs editor Sam Kiley here:
The UK can’t claim to take national security seriously at all after these revelations
Starmer has sent 'a real chill throughout the civil service'
A trade union boss has accused Sir Keir Starmer of sending a “real chill throughout the civil service” over his decision to sack the top mandarin of the Foreign Office.

Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA trade union, told BBC Newsnight: "I think the prime minister is losing the ability to work with the civil service."
"Who in the civil service would now think they would be immune from when it is politically expedient to be dismissed?" he asked.

Sir Olly Robbins was fired from his role as permanent under secretary over after it emerged he had not informed the prime minister that Lord Peter Mandelson had failed vetting.

“That's not a place any government wants to be because it doesn't deliver for the people of the country," he said.

Pat McFadden denies knowledge of Cabinet Office pushing for Mandelson to proceed without vetting
Former Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden said he had not pushed for Lord Peter Mandelson to be given the ambassador to the US job without vetting.

Sir Olly Robbins told MPs that the Foreign Office resisted suggestions from the Cabinet Office that Lord Mandelson might not need vetting because he was already a peer and a privy counsellor.

Mr McFadden, now the Work and Pensions Secretary, told Times Radio: “I have no knowledge that the Cabinet Office did suggest that.

“I was a senior minister in the Cabinet Office at the time, I certainly never suggested that.

“That’s something that Olly Robbins said yesterday.

It’s very clear in the emails to Peter Mandelson that vetting was part of the process and that his appointment was subject to that vetting process being completed.”
The former top official at the Foreign Office (FCDO) has hit back at Keir Starmer over the fallout from Peter Mandelson’s security vetting process.

Sir Olly Robbins gave evidence to MPs on the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday after being sacked by Downing Street last week over the decision to grant Lord Mandelson security clearance as US ambassador despite red flags in his vetting.

The saga has become the latest chapter in a scandal which has overshadowed Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership and prompted concerns about his leadership and judgement.

You can read about all the key moments below:
Every revelation from Robbins’ bombshell evidence over Mandelson
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