The former top civil servant in Britain’s foreign office, who was fired by Prime Minister Keir Starmer last week, said on Tuesday that Mr. Starmer’s office had a “dismissive attitude” about the security vetting of Peter Mandelson, an associate of Jeffrey Epstein who became ambassador to the United States despite concerns raised during the vetting process.
The former civil servant, Olly Robbins, testified in Parliament that he and other officials in charge of deciding whether to grant Mr. Mandelson a high-level security clearance were working in “an atmosphere of pressure” to ensure that nothing got in the way of Mr. Mandelson’s appointment.
“We were in receipt of formal letters from No. 10 telling us to get on with it quickly,” Mr. Robbins said. “Against that backdrop, the foreign office saying ‘OK, but sorry, we can’t grant him clearance’ would have been a very, very difficult problem, and a difficult problem I would have been landing the foreign secretary with and the prime minister with.”
Mr. Starmer fired Mr. Robbins on Thursday, hours after his office confirmed a report in The Guardian that Mr. Mandelson had received Britain’s highest level of security clearance even though a specialist vetting team had recommended against doing so. In September, Mr. Starmer removed Mr. Mandelson from his post as ambassador to Washington amid revelations about Mr. Mandelson’s close relationship with Mr. Epstein, the convicted sex offender.
Mr. Starmer said Mr. Robbins had not told him or other ministers about the vetting team’s recommendation. On Monday, Mr. Starmer told lawmakers that he was furious about that, as leaders of opposition parties renewed calls for him to resign.
On Tuesday, Mr. Robbins defended the decision he and his team had made to grant the security clearances, saying they were not unduly influenced by their superiors’ demand that they get the job done quickly.
Mr. Robbins said he had been told that the vetting team viewed the concerns about Mr. Mandelson as a “borderline case” and that they were merely “leaning against” recommending that he receive security clearances. He said the foreign office granted the clearances after deciding that the team’s concerns could be mitigated.
Asked repeatedly who within the government he had told about the vetting team’s concerns, Mr. Robbins said it would have been inappropriate for him to reveal the information to anyone, including Mr. Starmer or other ministers.
“This system absolutely depends on candidates for vetting knowing that the government will completely respect the confidences that they share,” Mr. Robbins said.
