Sacked civil servant discloses he overturned vetting ruling without knowing full extent of national security concerns
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The sacked senior civil servant Oliver Robbins has said he was subject to “constant pressure” when he arrived in the Foreign Office to get Peter Mandelson in post as soon as possible.
He said the Cabinet Office urged the Foreign Office to allow Mandelson’s appointment as the UK’s ambassador to the US without the usual vetting process but the Foreign Office pushed back and the vetting eventually went ahead.
In an extraordinary development, Robbins, who was sacked by Keir Starmer last week after the Guardian disclosed he had overturned a ruling from UK Security Vetting (UKSV), suggested he had done so without knowing the full extent of national security concerns over Mandelson.
