Despite his explanation and the need for political stability, the PM is still unpopular – and Olly Robbins has yet to give his side of the story
Labour MPs frustrated with the lack of a clear mission from Keir Starmer’s No 10 have often urged the prime minister to be more forceful in his arguments, to prosecute his values, to find an enemy to define himself against.
The prime minister has found one: Olly Robbins. Starmer prosecuted his case against the former Foreign Office chief on Monday with the vigour of his former life at the bar.
He came armed with timelines and letters and the promise of a new inquiry. He insisted that, had he known Peter Mandelson had failed the vetting, his original sin of appointing him as US ambassador would not have been committed.
But what he did not deliver was any admission that he had inadvertently misled the House of Commons. That seemed too painful an admission for Starmer to make, after having so expertly prosecuted Boris Johnson for misleading the House of Commons over partygate when he had stood at the opposite dispatch box.
